In recent years, incidents of malicious whistleblowing by private citizens have increased as a result of Chinese authorities acquiescing in, and even encouraging, “whistleblowing” behavior. University professors who have been the victims of malicious whistleblowing have been dismissed, speech platforms have been shut down, and individual users of social media have been banned. People have to “watch what they say” or risk punishment and jail time. Analysts say that this kind of malicious whistle-blowing has seriously jeopardized academic research and discussion as well as freedom of thought and expression.
Distinguished Scholar’s Lecture Interrupted by Report
On November 5, the School of History at Capital Normal University hosted an offline lecture on “Shen Zhihua: The Establishment and End of the Soviet Socialist Model,” which was broadcast live on Bilibili, featuring Shen Zhihua, a well-known Chinese expert on the history of the Cold War and a tenured professor at the history department of East China Normal University.
However, the lecture was interrupted after one hour of live streaming. After the event, the social media account of the organizer of the lecture, First Division University World History, issued a statement, saying that “the lecture was forced to move to Tencent in the middle of the meeting due to malicious reports,” and strictly condemned such malicious reports, which seriously interfered with normal academic exchanges, and reserved the right to further pursue responsibility. The account then also said that “for many considerations, the lecture video playback is not on shelves yet.
The statement also said that the lecture was the seventh in a series of lectures on “Four Histories” at the College of History of Beijing Normal University, and was an important attempt to implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speech on the study of “Four Histories” and to combine professional research and thematic education in the new era.
The reporter called the College of History at First Division University on Tuesday, and the person who answered the phone confirmed the lecture, but was reluctant to talk about it.
Shen Zhihua, a leading authority on international history of the Cold War, laughed off the malicious report of the lecture when asked by the Voice of America. He said, “Nowadays, Chinese netizens have all sorts of ideas, and if they don’t like what they hear, they will report it to you.
The source of the evil lies in the failure to protect freedom of speech.
Yang Shaozheng, a professor at Guizhou University’s School of Economics who was expelled from the university in 2018 for criticizing the “public funding of the party” in the classroom and online, told VOA that if the authorities abide by their own constitution, which guarantees citizens’ freedom of speech, whistleblowing or malicious whistleblowing would not disrupt the normal order of academic discussion and deprive university teachers and others of academic freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of speech.
He said: “On the surface these whistleblowers look very annoying and disgusting, but in reality, without the existence of that kind of environment for malicious whistleblowing, even if he wants to report, he can’t succeed. Malicious whistleblowing is now prevalent mainly because they do not abide by the protection of freedom of speech in our country, so that the constitutional rights of our university professors and citizens to freedom of speech are violated.”
Yang Shaozheng said that precisely because the constitutional protection of free speech is ignored, anyone who says anything that the Communist Party considers politically problematic will be punished. That’s why malicious whistleblowers are allowed to flourish in such an environment,” Yang said.
You Shengdong, 73, a former professor of economics at Xiamen University’s Jia Gung College, was fired in mid-2018 after being reported as “not sufficiently red and professional” for his classroom remarks to be inconsistent with Chinese Communist ideology. Even though more than 400 students signed a petition asking the university to retract its decision, it did not change the university’s political decision.
The university’s political decision was not changed even after more than 400 students signed a petition asking the university to withdraw the decision.
Campus Academic Climate Encourages Malicious Reporting
Professor Shengdong You, a victim of whistleblowing, told the Voice of America that the widespread practice of whistleblowing in Chinese universities in recent years has made teachers feel uninhibited and unable to teach freely, which is detrimental to the cultivation of talent.
In recent years, the political and academic atmosphere of Chinese universities has worsened,” he said. In the past few years, the teachers’ classes, because of the camera and the information officer, I was reported and other teachers were reported, and this situation is getting worse. If we do things like this, if teachers are not free to teach and research in their own fields, how can we train people who are oriented to the world and the future?”
You Shengdong also said that the Chinese Communist Party has stepped up its promotion of ideological brainwashing on university campuses, encouraging malicious whistleblowing and seriously undermining academic freedom and freedom of expression.
He said, “If there is no freedom of speech in a country, especially in a university, how can the truth be spread? How can this knowledge be imparted? How do you teach this student? Any country, if it is a society of the people for the people, then it should be a blossoming society, not one that should speak with one voice.”
Maoist scholars on the left take academic discussion up a notch
In addition, Mao Zuo’s “Wuhu Township” issued an open letter on November 9 written by “historian” Zhang Xingde denouncing Shougang University, “an open letter to the party committee of Capital Normal University on the incident of the “November 5 report on the four histories invited Shen Zhihua to lecture” – and comment on the eighteenth Shen Zhihua school”, defending the interruption of the broadcast of Shen Zhihua’s academic lectures in the event of malicious reports, but also Shen Zhihua and the official version of the academic views on the Korean War, the platform for political views and line disputes.
Shen’s views are based on a study of a large number of declassified documents from the former Soviet Union and other countries.
The open letter argues that the incident raises a serious political issue: it is Xi Jinping’s repeated emphasis that “ideological work is an extremely important work of the Party” and that “Party committees at all levels should take political and leadership responsibility” and be responsible for guarding the soil.
The open letter asserted, “This is the organizer, the propaganda side, intentionally or unintentionally, playing an objective role in opposing the recent national commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the departure of the volunteer army to fight against the U.S. and aid the DPRK, denying the spirit of Xi Jinping’s two speeches during this period, and denying the justice, correctness and legitimacy of the fight against the U.S. and aid the DPRK. Providing a new propaganda ground for Shen Zhihua’s stubbornly persistent erroneous theories is not at all a study of the ‘four histories’ or a ‘normal academic exchange activity’. This is a serious political wrongdoing, and for this reason, I call on the party committee of Capital Normal University to investigate and deal with it.
Maliciously Reported Scholar Criticizes “Cultural Revolution Leftism”
The human rights website Minsheng Watch said on November 9, reporting on the incident, from Zhang Xingde’s open letter throughout the political stick and hat language, it is clear that this is not an academic discussion, but naked political persecution, not only to try Professor Shen Zhihua’s academic views, but also the sitting Shougang University has the responsibility to shield, intended to kidnap the Shougang University and Professor Shen Zhihua together on the political trial and blocked and punished.
Professor Shen Zhihua said that he rarely goes online, he does not yet understand the contents of Zhang Xingde’s open letter, but he said that he is not surprised by the attacks on him over the years in the village of Wuhu.
He said, “I didn’t even see this. Ugyu Township has been calling me names for years. I know they must, no matter what you say, he’ll call you names. Hey, I don’t really care about these things.”
Yang Shaozheng, who is currently under strict control of the authorities, says the Cultural Revolution’s leftist approach, which readily turned academic discussion and exchange into a line and political struggle, has taken a heavy toll on Chinese society, but that few lessons have been learned so far.
He said: “In the process of academic discussion and academic exchange, it should be said that no academic ideas should be put on the program, which is one of the essential elements of a normal academic environment and academic ecology. He (Zhang Xingde) raised the original academic issues of what route disputes ah, what political issues, if he really has knowledge, knowledge, he really is a evidence, a logical way to speak, to draw conclusions, their own academic bottom, he should not do so. The prevailing illogical, fact-free, doctrinaire, and political thinking of the extreme left has hurt countless people and cost our country dearly. But those huge costs have not allowed the Communist Party to learn enough lessons.”
Dozens of college teachers convicted for speech
A special October 2019 tweet from the Twitter account “China’s Word Prison Roundup” lists dozens of Chinese university teachers who have been suspended or expelled in recent years after being reported by students for making allegedly inappropriate comments in class, or for making comments online.
Reports have also confirmed that many universities have even openly recruited student informants to monitor teachers, requiring them to report teachers who spread superstitious ideas, Western values, and criticize Party principles, to ensure that the “seven nonspeaks” that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping proposed in 2013, such as “no universal values” and “no mistakes in the history of the Communist Party,” are adhered to.
In addition to Professor You Shengdong of Xiamen University and Professor Yang Shaozheng of Guizhou University, Professor Deng Xiangchao, vice dean of the School of Arts at Shandong University of Architecture, was also dismissed in recent years, and in January 2017 was besieged, disciplined, suspended and ordered to retire, and was relieved of his duties as a provincial government counselor and member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) of the provincial government for forwarding articles critical and negative of Mao Zedong on microblogs.
Shi Jiepeng, an associate professor at Beijing Normal University, was dismissed in July 2017 for allegedly “making long-standing erroneous comments on the Internet” and “overstepping the red line of ideological management,” causing outrage among the intellectual community at the time.
Tan Song, a former associate professor at Chongqing Normal University, was expelled from the university in September 2017 and imprisoned by public security for investigating the truth about land reform, anti-rightist, Liu Wencai’s estate, the war, and the Wenchuan earthquake, and for speaking about June 4, 1989 in class.
Xu Chuanqing, an associate professor at Beijing Architecture University, was reported in September 2017 only for blaming students for not being serious in class, citing the example of Japanese students being diligent and saying that Japan would become a superior nation, and was administratively punished in 2018.
Zhai Juhong, an associate professor at Hubei Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, was expelled from the Party in May 2018 and transferred from his previous position after allegedly criticizing Xi Jinping’s constitutional revision and the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) system in a political classroom.
Wang Gang, an associate professor at Hebei University of Engineering’s School of Clinical Medicine, was dismissed from the school in July 2018 for establishing a Chinese people’s rights microchip group and arguing in a series of articles that China would not embark on the path of democratic constitutional government.
Cheng Ran, a lecturer at Xiangtan University, was demoted in March 2019 for allegedly “inserting and quoting a large number of inaccurate pictures and reports from foreign media” in class and making a series of comments that “scandalized the image of Party and state leaders.
Tang Yun, an associate professor at Chongqing Normal University, was stripped of his teaching credentials and demoted in March 2019 after students reported that he had made comments that damaged the country’s reputation.
Most sensationally, Xu Zhangrun, a professor at Tsinghua University School of Law, was suspended in March 2019 for criticizing Xi Jinping’s constitutional amendments, calling for a peaceful June 4 and Sunshine for Officials’ Assets Act, and putting an end to “big money-splitting” in his classes and speeches and articles. This was also the beginning of a series of encounters in which he was suppressed, even “prostituted” and fired.
Lv Jia, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Marxism, was reported by students as “anti-Party and unconstitutional” in April 2019, becoming the second teacher at the school that year to be investigated for his comments after Xu Zhangrun, a whistleblower who claimed that the Tsinghua University Discipline Inspection Commission had responded that it would launch an investigation.
Zi Su, a former teacher at the Yunnan Provincial Party School, was arrested on suspicion of “incitement to subversion” and sentenced to four years in prison in April 2019 for suggesting that the Communist Party implement internal democracy and calling for Xi Jinping’s resignation in April 2017.
Huang Chun, a retired female professor from Guizhou University for Nationalities, was administratively detained for 15 days on Sept. 24, 2019, for her comments on Twitter and WeChat about Hong Kong’s “anti-sending to China” and June 4.
Liu Yufu, a teacher at the School of Law at Chengdu University of Technology, was administratively punished in October 2019 for comments she made in class and on the Internet several years ago.
Cao Jisheng, a lecturer at the Institute of Marxism at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, was administratively punished by the police in late October 2019 for making “inappropriate comments” on WeChat and was marked down by the university.
According to some analysts, since the Chinese Communist Party issued its “seven no-speak” policy in 2013, which requires college teachers not to speak about universal values, freedom of the press, civil society, civil rights, the Party’s historical mistakes, the powerful bourgeoisie, and judicial independence, many topics have been banned from discussion, and freedom of speech has been severely squeezed on campus. In recent years, the malicious whistle-blowing and whistle-blowing that prevailed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s has been on the rise again, until it has become widespread again.
Analysis shows that in contemporary China, as politics trumps all else, political correctness can break through even the bottom line of human morality, and as the environment encourages the spread of malicious whistleblowing and snitching, the vices of the Cultural Revolution have returned.
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