Xu Zhangrun vs. Tsinghua University
Voices of Protest & Resistance (VII.2)
Friends and Colleagues,
Below we are reproducing the Open Letter to Tsinghua University written in support of Professor Xu Zhangrun 許章潤 and published here on the 5th of April 2019. A list of all of those who have contacted us over the last week (5-12 April) to sign this petition is appended below. We are collecting signatures until Friday the 19th of April (19 April in the Americas and Europe, 20 April in Asia and Australasia).
If you haven’t already done so, we would again request that you contact colleagues and others who are concerned about the state of academic life and free speech in the People’s Republic of China. Please provide them with the following details:
To sign this letter, please email your name and affiliation to:
ProfXu2019@gmail.com
This letter is open until the 19th of April 2019, after which it will be sent to Tsinghua University. It will also be made public, along with the full list of signatories. At the moment, we have some 155 signatories; we will be adding more names to the list as they come in. A full list of signatories will be published on 20 April.
With thanks,
Geremie R. Barmé & Andrew J. Nathan
The Wairarapa & New York
12 April 2019
Background Material:
Xu Zhangrun vs. Tsinghua University
Voices of Protest & Resistance
(March 2019-)
- Chris Buckley, ‘A Chinese Law Professor Criticized Xi. Now He’s Been Suspended’, New York Times, 26 March 2019
- Guo Yuhua 郭於華, ‘J’accuse, Tsinghua University!’, China Heritage, 27 March 2019
- Zha Jianguo 查建國 et al, ‘Heads or Tails — Criticism and Xu Zhangrun’, China Heritage, 29 March 2019
- Anon., ‘Silence + Conformity = Complicity — reflections on university life in China today’, China Heritage, 30 March 2019 (revised 2 April 2019)
- Wang Changjiang 王長江, ‘Tsinghua University Gets a Lecture on Leadership from the Central Party School’, China Heritage, 31 March 2019
- Various hands, ‘Speaking Up for a Man Who Dared to Speak Out’, China Heritage, 1 April, 2019
- Zi Zhongyun 資中筠, ‘My Tsinghua Lament’, China Heritage, 3 April 2019
- ‘An Open Letter to the President of Tsinghua University’, China Heritage, 5 April 2019
- The Editor and Tao Haisu 陶海粟, ‘Poetic Justice — a protest in verse’, China Heritage, 5 April 2019
- Xia Li’an 夏立安 and Gu Wanming 顧萬明, ‘Throw Him Out Now! No, Give Him His Job Back!’, China Heritage, 8 April 2019
- Zhang Weiying 張維迎, ‘There’s Just No Shutting You Up! — a Shaanbei Serenade’, China Heritage, 10 April 2019
- Feng Ling 風靈, ‘Sweep Away All Professors! Make China’s Universities Safe Spaces!’, China Heritage, 12 April 2019
- China Heritage, The Xu Zhangrun Archive, 1 August 2018-
An Open Letter to Tsinghua University
5th April 2019
Dr. Qiu Yong
President, Tsinghua University
Dear President Qiu,
Tsinghua University, one of the most highly ranked universities in the world, has suffered severe damage to its academic reputation as a consequence of the university’s punishment of Professor Xu Zhangrun.
As members of the international academic community, we urge the university to restore Professor Xu’s normal status in the university, including his teaching and research duties, and to refrain from any further sanctions against him.
Sincerely,
Initial Sponsors (5 April 2019), in alphabetical order:
Geremie R. Barmé
The Australian National University
Jean-Philippe Béja
CNRS/CERI-Sciences-Po
(Centre de Recherches Internationales)
Ian Buruma
Bard College
Steven I. Levine
University of Montana
Perry Link
University of California, Riverside
Andrew J. Nathan
Columbia University
Sophie Richardson
Human Rights Watch
Orville Schell
Asia Society
Signatories (5-12 April 2019), in alphabetical order:
Nick Admussen
Cornell University
Tomoko Ako
The University of Tokyo
Robbie Barnett
University of Cambridge
Emily Baum
University of California, Irvine
Bill Bauriedel
Stanford University
Lucien Bianco
EHESS, Paris
Ester Bianchi
Perugia University
Sarah Biddulph
The University of Melbourne
Jean François Billeter
University of Geneva
Gill H. Boehringer
International Association of People’s Lawyers
Joseph Bosco
Georgetown University
Michel Bonnin
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Claire-Akiko Brisset
University of Geneva
Timothy Brook
University of British Columbia
Catherine Capdeville
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
Hing-Ho Chan
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Yu-Jie Chen
Institutum Iurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica
Wang Chaohua
University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Chaves
The George Washington University
Louisa Chiang
Independent Writer
Feng Chongyi
University of Technology Sydney
Eva S. Chou
Baruch College, City University of New York
Jennifer Chou
Journalist
Andrew Chubb
Columbia University
Donald Clarke
George Washington University
Jerome A. Cohen
New York University
Anders Corr
Journal of Political Risk
John A. Crespi
Colgate University
Gloria Davies
Monash University
Deborah Davis
Yale University
Kirk Denton
Ohio State University
Zhang Dong
University of Applied Sciences Ludwigshafen
June Teufel Dreyer
University of Miami
Josephine Chiu-Duke
University of British Columbia
George Dutton
University of California, Los Angeles
Fredrik Fällman
University of Gothenburg
Magnus Fiskesjö
Cornell University
Martin S. Flaherty
Princeton University
Ivan Franceschini
The Australian National University
Vanessa Frangville
Free University of Brussels
Edward Friedman
University of Wisconsin
Chloe Froissart
University of Rennes
Andreas Fulda
University of Nottingham
Luca Gabbiani
French School of Asian Studies
Roger Garside
Former officer of the British Diplomatic Service
Beatrice Gallelli
Ca’ Foscari University
Ken George
The Australian National University
Frank Gibney Jr.
Independent Writer & Editor
Brunswick, ME USA
Jeremy Goldkorn
SupChina
Laura De Giorgi
University Ca’ Foscari Venezia
Jane Golley
The Australian National University
Romain Graziani
Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon
Eric Haag
University of Maryland, College Park
James M. Hargett
The University at Albany, State University of New York
Carsten A. Holz
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Marie Holzman
Solidarity China
Charles Horner
Hudson Institute
Ke Chiang Hsieh
University of Arizona
Jaw-Nian Huang
Tamkang University, Taipei
Jean-François Huchet
National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisation
Wai How Hui
University of Waterloo and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Tomoaki Ishii
Meiji University
Ronald R. Janssen
Hofstra University
Zhe Ji
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
Ha Jin
Boston University
Marja Kaikkonen
Stockholm University
Kai Kajitani
Kobe University
Zhengguo Kang
Yale University
Anne Kerlan
CNRS, Paris
Jeffrey C. Kinkley
Portland State University
Wyman Kwok
formerly of Shantou University, PRC
Christian Lamouroux
École des hautes études en sciences sociales
Diana Lary
University of British Columbia
Françoise Lauwaert
Free University of Brussels
Valérie Lavoix
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
Daniel Leese
University of Freiburg
Paul Levine
Copenhagen University
Xiaolin Li
Columbia University
Thunghong Lin
Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica
Winston Lord
former US Ambassador to China
Julia Lovell
University of London
Sumitendra Mazumdar
University of Arizona
John Minford
The Australian National University
Marina Miranda
University of Rome “Sapienza”
Barrett L. McCormick
Marquette University
Tommy McClellan
University of Edinburgh
Eberhard Möbius
University of New Hampshire
Brian Moloughney
University of Otago
Dani Madrid-Morales
University of Houston
Steven W. Mosher
Population Research Institute
Ryan Nichols
California State University, Fullerton
Roger E. Noether
National Taiwan University
Giangiorgio Pasqualotto
Padua University
Luisa M. Paternicò
“L’Orientale” University of Naples
Angel Pino
Université Bordeaux Montaigne
Eva Pils
King’s College London
Isabelle Rabut
National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisation
Christopher Rea
University of British Columbia
Annie Luman Ren
The Australian National University
Stein Ringen
University of Oxford
Richard Rigby
The Australian National University
Christopher Rosenmeier
University of Edinburgh
Stuart Russell
Sydney Australia
Elisa Levi Sabattini
L’Orientale University of Naples-Italy
Gabriele von Sivers-Sattler
Independent scholar, Heidelberg, Germany
Martin Sattler
Pepperdine University Heidelberg
Maurizio Scarpari
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Gary J. Schmitt
American Enterprise Institute
Vera Schwarcz
Wesleyan University
Susan Shirk
University of California, San Diego
Mark Sidel
University of Wisconsin-Madison
William Sima
The Australian National University
Yongyi Song
California State University, Los Angeles
Pierre-François Souyri
University of Geneva
Callum Smith
Kanazawa University
Warren Sun
Monash University
Marina Svensson
Lund University
Osamu Takamizawa
The University of Tokyo
Liwen Chen Tardieu
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
Isabelle Thireau
School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences
Patricia M. Thornton
University of Oxford
Glenn Tiffert
Hoover Institution
Sue Trevaskes
Griffith University
Rory Truex
Princeton University
Chien-Yuan Tseng
National Taiwan University
Sebastian Veg
School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences, Paris
Florent Villard
Rennes Institute of Political Studies
Rudolf G. Wagner
Heidelberg University, Germany
Yuan-kang Wang
Western Michigan University
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
University of California, Irvine
Mariko Watanabe
Gakushuin University
Jeremy Webber
University of Victoria
Ralph Weber
University of Basel
Gerrit van der Wees
Department of History George Mason University
Frances Weightman
University of Leeds
Stephen H. Whiteman
The University of London
Lynn T. White III
Princeton University
Martin K. Whyte
Harvard University
Pierre-Etienne Will
Collège de France
Philip Williams
Montana State University
Jieh-min Wu
Academia Sinica
Zhang Xianchu
The University of Hong Kong
Qiang Xiao
University of California, Berkeley
Peter Zarrow
University of Connecticut
Jianying Zha
India China Institute, New York City
Laure Zhang
University of Geneva
Renlong Zhang
Jiaotong University, Year of 1977
Nicolas Zufferey
University of Geneva