More than 130 members of the Wellesley College faculty are protesting the potential dismissal of a dissident Peking University professor and threatening to challenge the formal partnership Wellesley recently signed with the Chinese institution. In an open letter, the Wellesley protesters noted that Peking University will sponsor a vote on whether to fire professor Xia Yeliang “solely on the basis of his political and philosophical views.” Xia is an admirer of free-market economist Milton Friedman and an outspoken advocate of greater democracy and freedom in China. Many depressing stories appear these days showing American faculty declining to support academic freedom, so it’s bracing to see faculty taking a clear and strong stand to defend it.
