The World - News from March 1, 1987

Fang Lizhi, a prominent astrophysicist purged in China’s campaign against Western liberal thought, appeared at an official function, his first since being fired as vice president of the China University of Science and Technology on Jan. 12. The official New China News Agency said Fang, 50, delivered a report on the development of modern physics at a meeting of the Chinese Physics Society in Beijing. A week after Fang was fired from his university post, he was expelled from the Communist Party after being accused of inciting students with speeches and writings advocating Western-style democracy in China.