Expelled scholar Xia Yeliang may have to take US visiting scholarship

Xia Yeliang, the outspoken professor fired last week by Peking University, triggering a debate about academic freedom at China’s most prestigious academic institution, said he is considering taking up a visiting scholarship overseas if he couldn't find a teaching position at a Chinese university.

“I hoped some university in China can offer me a position, but so far no single university has dared to accept me,” Xia told the South China Morning Post. “If I [go and] stay overseas for two years, then maybe they will.”

The professor said he was aware of ongoing discussions on inviting him to the US as a visiting scholar, but said that he had not yet received a firm offer. Xia said he wanted to ultimately return to China.

In a rare move, Peking University’s economics faculty voted last week to expel him in a 30-3 vote, with one abstention.

Xia had just returned to Beijing to teach at the department after spending a year as a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

His expulsion has caused uproar among academics abroad questioning the university’s supposed tolerance of liberal scholars. Xia is one of the first signatories of the Charter 08, an open call for political reforms which landed initiator Liu Xiaobo in jail on subversion charges and earned him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Scholars elsewhere have also rushed to question their own universities’ cooperation with Peking University.