Japan war campaigner axed by research centre
War reparations campaigner Tong Zeng has been fired by the China Research Centre on Ageing after being accused of defaming it, a circular issued by the organisation said.
A letter of termination alleged Mr Tong, 42, had slandered the organisation by saying it violated the human rights of Chinese centenarians through its 'study into the health and longevity of the elderly'.
In April, Mr Tong said Western scientists, including some from Denmark, were illegally taking blood samples from mainland centenarians, putting their lives at risk.
The letter said Danish experts had approval from authorities to lecture in China and had nothing to do with the experiment. The Danish Embassy wrote to the centre, calling Mr Tong a 'madman'.
The circular also accused Mr Tong of standing firm on his position of 'bourgeois liberalisation', saying his 'public speeches, declarations and opinions violated the Four Cardinal Principles'. The Communist Party refers to Western capitalist influence as 'bourgeois liberalisation'. The Four Cardinal Principles affirm the party's leadership, supremacy of Marxism and Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Mr Tong confirmed he had been fired but stood by his claims. He denied the centre's accusations, saying: 'They are all lies.' Mr Tong said the centre stopped paying his wages in May, but did not send him the termination letter, dated August 5, until the end of September.
