Liberal Peking University professor faces expulsion

A renowned professor has confirmed online rumours that his peers will decide whether he will be expelled from China's most eminent university after he made a series of remarks in favour of free speech and constitutional governance, writes Patrick Boehler for the South China Morning Post.

Economics professor Xia Yeliang of Peking University was told by his department that his fate would be decided by a faculty vote, he told South China Morning Post last Monday. "They told me it's because of all the things I have said and written," Xia said. "They have threatened me before, but this is the first time they will vote on my expulsion."

In recent years Xia has been one of the most outspoken liberal voices among Chinese academics. A friend of imprisoned Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, he was among the first signatories of Charter 08, the call for personal freedoms that landed Liu in jail.
Full report on the South China Morning Post site