北大异见者夏业良赴美担任研究员

choi

Tamar Lewin, 北大异见者夏业良赴美担任研究员. 纽约时报中文网, Feb 9, 2014
cn.nytimes.com/china/20140210/c10xia/

, which is translated from

Tamar Lewin, Chinese Dissident Lands at Institute, With a Caution to Colleges. New York Times, Feb 10, 2014.

Xia “will become a visiting fellow at the Cato Institute on Monday [Feb 10], he said. In an interview on Friday * * * at the New Jersey home of a childhood friend

“The political labels of Professor Xia and the Cato Institute, in Washington, are strikingly different. Professor Xia got into trouble in China for being too liberal, while the institute is known as libertarian or — less to its liking — ultraconservative. But the professor and Cato officials say they have the same focus. ‘Here’s a guy who promotes market reforms, human rights and limited constitutional democracy, and we share those values,’ said Ian Vásquez, director of Cato’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. ‘If he can use the Cato platform to call attention to the most urgent reforms, both economic and social, in China, that would be a lot.’

“Wellesley’s partnership with Peking University is continuing, and Professor Xia will be a visiting associate at Wellesley’s Freedom Project, headed by Thomas Cushman, who organized the [open] letter [in which ‘more than 130 professors declared in September [2013] that they would seek to have the agreement [partnering Peking University with Wellesley] reconsidered if Professor Xia was fired for political reasons]. Professor Cushman said many of his colleagues did not understand the centrality of Communist Party officials in China’s universities, and were too quick to believe that Professor Xia had been fired for bad teaching.

“Some relatives have urged Professor Xia to abandon his activism. When news of his situation reached his parents, he said, his mother called in tears. ‘She said, “Can’t you go to the leaders and tell them you were wrong?”’ he said. ‘I told her, ‘Mom, you know your son better than that.”’