#MeToo hits universities, despite internet censors

After highly-regarded Beihang University Professor Chen Xiaowu was dismissed over multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, students and alumni from dozens of top universities launched online petitions demanding that university administrators establish official policies against sexual misconduct, which are all but non-existent in Chinese universities, writes Oiwan Lam for Hong Kong Free Press.

When the #MeToo movement spread to mainland China it was difficult to see online, thanks to China’s aggressive internet censorship regime. But this began to shift when the story of Luo Qianqian, a former student at Beihang University in Beijing, went viral. Luo, who is now living in the United States, published an essay in which she described how Chen lured her to his sister’s home and forced himself upon her during her postgraduate study. Censors responded quickly, but could not contain the response when five other Beihang students came forward and made similar allegations against Chen.

Since then, students, alumni and teachers from several universities, including Beijing University, Fudan University and Wuhan University, have made public appeals to university authorities to introduce a set of monitoring and disciplinary measures to prevent campus sexual harassment. In addition, more than 50 professors from universities across the country signed a declaration on 19 January urging the ministry of education to address school and university campus sexual harassment with a concrete policy.
Full report on the Hong Kong Free Press site