Don’t expel liberal professor, US academics urge Peking University

Peking University should not expel a liberal professor, Xia Yeliang, for political reasons, faculty members at Wellesley College in the United States urged in an open letter.

In the plea addressed to the university's president, the dean of the School of Economics and the university's party secretary, the 130 American academics urged the university to uphold its commitment to academic freedom and not to fire Xia "based solely on his political and philosophical views".

They said if the university expelled Xia, who has been teaching there since 2000, they would ask Wellesley College to reconsider its institutional partnership with Peking University.

Xia, of the School of Economics, said yesterday he appreciated the support of Western colleagues but did not think it would help him.

"They [Peking University] told me pressuring the university with outside support would not work in my favour," Xia said. The university has told Xia that it will tell him his fate this month.

Wellesley College said in June it was launching a partnership with Peking University that encompasses "faculty and student exchanges, joint research and virtual collaborations".

Xia visited Wellesley College on an academic trip last month.