MCLC: fate of PKU prof still unknown

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Kevin Carrico <kjc83 at cornell.edu>>
Subject: fate of PKU prof still unknown
**************************************************

Source: SCMP (9/11/13):
http://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1308218/fate-liberal-peking-
university-professor-still-unknown-despite

Fate of liberal Peking University professor still unknown despite support
of US academics
More than 130 faculty members from Wellesley College in United States
wrote a letter to Peking University, urging the school not to expel Xia
Yeliang
By Amy Li

The fate of a liberal Peking University Professor Xia Yeliang remains in
question days after more than 130 faculty members from Wellesley College
in United States wrote an open letter to administrators at Peking
University (PKU), urging the school not to expel Xia for political reasons.

In a phone conversation with SCMP.com on Wednesday, Xia from the School of
Economics said while he appreciated the support from his western
colleagues, it¹s not clear how this letter will affect the decision of PKU.

³They told me pressuring the university with outside support was not going
to work in my favor,² Xia said, referring to a recent conversation he had
with Peking Universoty officials. Meanwhile, the school has yet to tell
Xia when faculty members would vote on his expulsion, Xia said. The school
had earlier threatened to hold a vote in September.

In an open letter addressed to the university¹s president
<http://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/wellesley-to-peking-university-suck-it#
rest_1010769>, dean of the School of Economics, and the university¹s party
secretary- dated September 3, Wellesley¹s faculty members urged PKU to
uphold its commitment to principles of academic freedom and not to fire
Xia² based solely on his political and philosophical views².

If PKU removes Professor Xia, who has been teaching at PKU since 2000,
academics who signed the letter will ask Wellesley College to reconsider
its institutional partnership with PKU, said the letter.

Wellesley College announced on its website in June the launch of an
ongoing partnership with Peking University that encompasses ³faculty and
student exchanges, joint research, and virtual collaboration.
<http://www.wellesley.edu/wwp/peking/partnership>"

Xia visited Wellesley College on an academic trip in August, according to
its website. <http://www.wellesley.edu/news/2013/08/node/37328>

The support from the west managed to elicit a response from China¹s
nationalist Global Times, which  published an editorial this week  titled
³Pass the evaluation first if you want to be a PKU professor.²

The harshly worded editorial, believed to be written by the paper's
editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, accused Xia - an ³extremist liberal" - of trying
to seek ³special treatment² simply because he¹s "advocating freedom and
democracy².

³PKU should not give in to outside pressure and  Xia¹s attitude,² said the
editorial. Instead, it said the university should make an independent
decision by going through ³regular procedures.²

One of the first signatories of Charter 08, the call for personal freedoms
that landed Liu Xiaobo in jail, Xia is among the most outspoken liberal
voices among Chinese academics. In 2009, Xia wrote an open letter to Liu
Yunshan, who until last year headed the Communist Party's propaganda
department, calling for an end to censorship.

Xia said over the years he had been constantly watched and harassed by
police as a result of his activism.

³Sometimes the plainclothes officers would sit outside my classroom and
wait for me while I was teaching or having a meeting, ² he said.
In 2011, Xia decided to participate in a  visiting scholar programme at
University of California Los Angeles partly to escape from the police
harassment and pressures from PKU. In retrospect,  Xia said the time he
had spent in the US was ³free and relaxed.²

While overseas, Xia continued to advocate online for social reform in
China. This upset officials of  PKU, who demanded he return to Beijing
this year despite his intention of staying longer in US, he said.

On a popular ³rate your professor² website widely used by China¹s college
students, Xia received positive reviews for his class ³Principles of
Economics.²

³This is one of the most popular elective courses offered by PKU,² wrote a
student, ³the class was crowded despite the 100 student limit - even the
corridor was full of standing students.²

While some reviews said Xia was ³charismatic² and ³extremely concerned
about the fate of the Chinese people," another student wrote less
favourably of his teaching:
<http://www.douban.com/people/kazuo/status/1219079266/?start=0#comments>
"Professor Xia, you spent 30 minutes of the three-hour session discussing
economics, and you- the great democracy and freedom fighter- devoted the
rest of the class attacking China's system- I was more than disappointed."

A spokesperson at PKU's School of Economics declined to comment on
Wednesday.