Liberal Peking University economics professor Xia Yeliang, a vocal supporter of free speech and a friend of the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, told the South China Morning Post on Monday that his peers will vote to decide whether to expel him from the institution:
Xia said he was told by university officials, whom he declined to identify, that contrary to rumours circulating on microblogs, the vote was not the result of any specific tweet, but of his overall message.
Xia said that he would not be allowed to speak to the voting plenum, which is scheduled for September, and that he did not know how many of up to 35 professors would participate in it.
While he remained defiant, he said he was not optimistic about his fate.
“[Voting professors] can ask for leave,” he said. “But they could receive instructions on how to vote from their superiors. They will ask themselves, if they vote for me, what benefits will they get?” [Source]
Xia, who is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University, added that he believed the decision to hold a vote “is coming straight from the central leadership” and said he would fight the expulsion.
