Taiwan academics demanded the Academia Sinica to cancel the academician status of HKU President Zhang Xiang’s action escalated, a number of Academia Sinica scholars on Wednesday (12) in the form of a press conference, public solidarity with the University of Hong Kong students’ demands. The scholars criticized Zhang Xiang for introducing the National Security Law into HKU and persecuting academic freedom on campus, and hoped that Academia Sinica President Liao Junzhi would handle Zhang Xiang’s academician status at the July academician meeting.
Wu Ruiren, an associate researcher at the Institute of Taiwan History, said at a press conference that Zhang Xiang not only strongly identifies with the Chinese Communist regime, supports the National Security Law, supports the Anti-Sending China Ordinance, and supports the Hong Kong police’s suppression of the public, but also assists the Chinese government in implementing the “Hong Kong Cultural Revolution”.
Wu Ruiren said: “The Hong Kong Cultural Revolution is in full swing, purging student unions in universities, destroying the tradition of student autonomy, eradicating the new generation of local democracy, and blocking Hong Kong’s intellectual youth from international connections, which are the important tasks of the Hong Kong Cultural Revolution. The actual implementation of this task was carried out by the university authorities of the universities in Hong Kong. The purge of student unions by the university authorities is part of Beijing’s project to destroy student autonomy and social autonomy in Hong Kong. It was the president, Zhang Xiang. Zhang Xiang is a member of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan.
Zhang Guming, an associate researcher at the Institute of History and Language, called on Academia Sinica President Liao Junzhi to show courage and deal with Zhang Xiang’s membership in this year’s Academia Sinica meeting. Zhang Guming expects great resistance, but if Liao shows courage, Academia Sinica scholars will fully support.
Zhang Gu Ming said: Academician meeting of Academia Sinica, in fact, will be held in July, the president of Academia Sinica, is the chairman of the meeting, in fact, he has absolute qualifications and absolute identity, according to the current allegations against Zhang Xiang wrote a letter to Zhang Xiang, asking him to make a reply to these allegations. Whether he replies or not depends on how the academicians’ meeting handles the matter, or at least when the academicians’ meeting handles the matter, it can be used as a basis for discussion. I don’t know if our dean will do this, but if the dean is willing to serve as our ethical model, I think this is something he can do.
Paul Jobin, an associate researcher at the Institute for Social Research, pointed out that there are also cases abroad where academician titles may be revoked for violating ethical guidelines, for example: the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) received a complaint against two male academicians for sexual harassment, and the case is still pending, which may eventually lead to the revocation of academician status for these two scientists.
Although political bullying and sexual harassment of students by a totalitarian government are not the same situation, both involve ethical issues, said Paul Peng.
Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom revoked Lam’s honorary fellowship for “deviating from the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression, disciplining teachers who criticize the government, preventing students from singing and chanting slogans at school, and enforcing national security laws with extraterritorial effects. The government is also responsible for “deviating from the principles of academic freedom and freedom of expression, disciplining teachers who criticize the government, preventing students from singing and chanting at school, and enforcing national security laws with extraterritorial effects.
Lin Zonghong, a researcher at the Institute of Social Studies, said that since the Umbrella Movement in 2014, there have been a number of incidents in which violations of academic freedom have led to the silencing or unemployment of scholars. He called on the Academia Sinica to establish a mechanism to rescue Hong Kong scholars and also to attract talents to Taiwan.
Lin said: “This includes selecting three to five Hong Kong scholars whose academic freedom has been infringed upon each year and providing them with a two-year scholarship in solidarity with Hong Kong’s academic freedom. That is to say, he was dismissed, he was persecuted for political reasons, because of the street march arrested to go to jail to lose his teaching position, such cases we think should be awarded to him. Scholars who have been persecuted politically and academically come to Taiwan and to Academia Sinica for lectures and exchanges.
Lin Zonghong said, this mechanism is the Institute to support academic freedom, freedom of expression a performance, but also to support the scholars in Hong Kong, continue to carry out research on democracy and human rights.
A student alumnus of the University of Hong Kong published an open letter to the president of Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, accusing the president of the University of Hong Kong, Zhang Xiang, of being a “lack of ethics and conscience of the Communist Party” and urging the withdrawal of his Academia Sinica membership. Taiwan’s civil society group “Economic Democratic Alliance” held a press conference last Thursday (6) with scholars and DPP legislators in response, calling for the revocation of his membership in the Academia Sinica, and a comprehensive review of the selection method of academicians, the establishment of a withdrawal mechanism, to show the determination of the Academia Sinica to uphold academic freedom and not to be a helper for the totalitarian government.
The Deputy Director of the Land Commission, Qiu Chui-cheng, said that Taiwan firmly believes in academic freedom, democratic freedom and other universal values, for the relevant views respect the final decision of the Academia Sinica.
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