A university professor from southern China has been removed from his position for expressing “radical opinions” on the internet.
The move follows the introduction of new rules forbidding Communist party members from publicly criticising government policy.
Liang Xinsheng, the deputy head of the English department at Lingnan Normal University, used an account on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, to spread the damaging messages, the Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported.
Liang was also alleged to have fabricated political rumours which “damaged the image of the party and the country and had a negative influence on society”.
The punishment was announced less than two weeks after the editor of a government-run newspaper was sacked and expelled from the party after being found guilty of “improperly” discussing and opposing government policy in the violence-hit region of Xinjiang.
Last month Beijing unveiled new rules for party members barring them from “making groundless comments on national policies”.
Those regulations mean “vilifying party leaders, distorting party history, making inappropriate comments and challenging policies” are now outlawed, according to the South China Morning Post.
The precise nature of Liang’s “radical” online comments were not revealed and his Weibo history appeared to have been wiped.
In a brief message, posted on Friday morning, the scholar suggested envious colleagues had seized on some “words of complaint” in order to force him from his job. “I am someone who strives to be clean,” he wrote on Weibo. “I know what kind of teacher I am.”
Ma Guoxian, a Shanghai-based political economist, told the South China Morning Post the recent incidents should give party members pause for thought.
“Don’t spread unverified rumours about senior party leaders. Beware when criticising government policies and never, ever take advantage of propaganda tools such as television, radio or newspapers,’ he said.
Liberal academics say they have come under severe pressure since Xi Jinping came to power in November 2012.
In a recent interview, Tim Cheek, author of The Intellectual in Modern Chinese History, said the situation had deteriorated so much that he recently asked a Chinese colleague if they wanted help arranging a visiting scholarship overseas “to stay out of the storm”.
He said the academic replied: “Well, not now, but maybe later. If Xi Jinping sorts out his competitors, after the 19th party conference [in 2017] there will be a rectification.”
Faced with growing political pressure from above, Cheek predicted progressive academics would “trim their sails accordingly, and live to try another day”.
Additional reporting by Christy Yao
