Classical Liberal Professor under fire:School Votes for Expulsion

An economist from Beijing’s Peking University, has an uncertain future because of the classical liberal economic principles he is teaching in class.

“A university is a place that should be free and open” Professor David Yeliang Xia, a visiting scholar at Stanford University told the South China Morning Post. “The state of academic freedom is getting worse and worse. Nowadays, you don’t have the right to debate.”

Xia is one of the most outspoken classical liberal voices among Chinese academics, and now his job security is at risk because of it.

Professor Xia

As a friend and ally of Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr.Liu Xiaobo, and a supporter of Charter 08, which calls for personal freedoms in China, Xia has been frequently harassed with interrogation, tracking, telephone-tapping, cyber attacks as well as other intimidation tactics by the communist party and government officials.

That did not hold Xia back, and continued to call the socialist train of though, the “Chinese Dream”, “against constitutionalism and humanity”. He also wrote an open letter to Liu Yunshan, the head of the Communist Party’s propaganda department, calling for an end to censorship.

Peking University will be voting to decide if he will be able to continue to teach at the school. “They have threatened me before, but this is the first time they will vote on my expulsion.”

As an active twitter user, it has been questioned if he is being targeted due to his twitter activity, but according to Xia, “it’s because of all the things I have said and written,” Xia said.

It inspires me to see a professor like this, because even though he is facing losing his job and being frequently harassed by the government and the Communist party, he continues to teach the concepts he believes to be true.

This situation is a representation of why we should fight against socialism. This sort of political alienation in higher education is already happening in the United States (ex. UNCW Professor Dr.Mike Adams), and as socialism expands, it will become even more prevalent.

Larger government means more oversight, and more oversight starts to mean censoring speech and restricting first amendment freedoms. This professor has opportunities to stay in the United States to teach but wants to continue teaching in China, because he knows that he can impact people, helping them recognize the importance of personal freedoms.

Communism is a evil machine, and it is rearing it’s ugly head in this situation.

Xia is the author of two books, Economic Anatomy of Public Issues (2002) and the Weight that Economics Could Not Bear (2003), and I plan on reading both. They stress the importance of financial freedom, and they both look really cool.