Chinese professor who breached Singapore university staff-conduct rule calls for explanation of how case was handled
- The National University of Singapore could not verify most allegations against Zheng Yongnian, but said the breach occurred when he hugged an employee without her consent
- Zheng, one of China’s top political scientists, has berated NUS’ handling of the matter, while the employee is ‘disappointed’ with the outcome
The staff member of the East Asian Institute, a think tank at NUS that Zheng led as director from 2008 to May last year, had accused the 58-year-old of inappropriate physical conduct on three occasions in 2018, including one instance of hugging her and patting her buttocks.
The employee lodged a police report in May last year and the police issued a stern warning to Zheng this April. Details of the allegations surfaced in August, when she wrote a series of Twitter posts with the handle @Chary19513 that also lashed out at the management of NUS for the way it responded to her complaint.
Zheng, who was among the nine trusted scholars that Chinese President Xi Jinping gathered earlier this year to discuss China’s five-year development plan, denied all allegations through his lawyers that same month. He had remained at the East Asian Institute as a research professor after stepping down as director but left NUS in September this year. He is now head of global and contemporary China studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Shenzhen.
In comments to This Week in Asia, he maintained there had been no “inappropriate physical contact” between him and the employee. Zheng also berated NUS for how it had handled the matter, questioning the university’s “unilateral” decision to ban him from his office when investigations began as well as its statement that it would continue to provide support to the staff member.
“Even after the facts are investigated, the false accuser is still being protected? As a former professor of the school for 20 years, I need an explanation from NUS,” he said.