China Fires Two Academics After Student Protests
An academic who became a hero to students demonstrating for democracy was removed from his post today and accused of deviating from Communist Party principles, the official New China News Agency said.
Fang Lizhi, vice president of the Science and Technology University in Hefei, was fired along with the university’s president, Guan Weiyan, the agency said.
Diplomats and other sources have said Fang was purged from Communist Party rolls as party leaders moved against “bourgeois liberalism”--advocacy of Western-style capitalism and democracy--after student demonstrations that have erupted in at least 11 cities in the last month.
Meanwhile, there was speculation that Communist Party chief Hu Yaobang is in political trouble. Hu, a reformist and close ally of senior leader Deng Xiaoping, has not been seen in public for several weeks and his disappearance has raised questions of whether he is under attack.
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