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Peking Uni transfers outspoken prof to west China

ludahai

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BEIJING – University authorities reassigned an outspoken Beijing law professor to teach in remote western China — a move he said Thursday may be retaliation for his signing a landmark petition calling for political reform.

He Weifang said administrators at elite Peking University in Beijing approached him earlier this year about transferring to the Central Asian border region of Xinjiang. Though the school frequently sends professors to remote schools for stints, He said he was given no explicit reason for the move.

He had frequent run-ins with university officials over his liberal views. After he signed the Charter '08 petition last December, He said he, like many other signers, was told by officials to change his behavior.

Charter '08 is one of the bolder political statements to emerge from political critics of China's authoritarian government and attracted more than 300 signers, mainly lawyers, scholars and others in the educated elite. The petition challenges the Communist Party's political monopoly, urging greater respect for human rights, a free press and multiparty democracy.

This is why you can never trust statements in the media from so-called Chinese "intellectuals" and "academics." If they say anything that does NOT tow the party line, they get punished for it. There is little academic freedom in China - especially in the social sciences.
 
I read the petition online (via proxy)... it is very courageous but unfortunately I don't think it will carry much weight, especially now that the site is blocked on the firewall.
 
I read the petition online (via proxy)... it is very courageous but unfortunately I don't think it will carry much weight, especially now that the site is blocked on the firewall.

If the Chinese government isn't interested, they will ignore it and punish those responsible - as is obviously happening.
 
They definitely aren't interested, as the petition site is already blocked.

I was going to post a funny link... the same guys that made the petition made the 草泥马 video... about the "mud grass horse". It was sung by kids and had a lot of other swear words that have been re-stated in non-offensive ways. So hilarious! The idea was to show how easily the censor can be bypassed.

But alas... the youtube video is now gone. It was taken down by whoever posted it. Probably forced to. You can still read about it here, and maybe find another place online where it's posted:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/world/asia/12beast.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
 
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