The Awkwardness of Foreign Entanglements

NYU has a Shanghai campus. When challenged as to whether free speech and free inquiry could really take place at NYU Shanghai, NYU's President Sexton said, “I have no trouble distinguishing between rights of academic freedom and rights of political expression. These are two different things.” So then, are the words "New York University" academic or political speech? The latter, apparently, according to the Chinese Internet censors. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 

China’s Internet censors have added “New York University” to their list of blocked search terms, reports China Digital Times. Last week, NYU’s law school offered the blind civil-rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng a visiting-scholar position. … On the popular Sina Weibo microblogging service, searches for “New York University” drew denial-of-service messages on May 10, reports China Digital Times. Other terms banned since the diplomatic row began, and still blocked, include Mr. Chen’s name, and more than a dozen nicknames for him such as “sunglasses brother,” and the name of the U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke.

I am all in favor of engaging China and other far eastern nations with undemocratic political systems. But what can it possibly mean to run an American branch campus in a place where even the name of the university is politically unmentionable?