It feels like a bit of overreaction from the professor, unless there were other emails or calls from the Chinese government. If it was just one email, it could

It feels like a bit of overreaction from the professor, unless there were other emails or calls from the Chinese government. If it was just one email, it could also be possible that she just wanted him to find a different advisor and didn't realize that breaking her advisory relationship with the student would leave him in the lurch and without a PHD. All in all a really bad incident for the kid.