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| 张雪忠 |
杰安迪 2013年12月11日
据报道，中国一所极具声望的大学的管理者解聘了一名大胆敢言的法学教授，因为这名教授提倡言论自由，而且多次呼吁政府遵守自身制定的宪法。
在上海华东政法大学任教的张雪忠说，学校管理者周一通知他，由于他拒绝为自己所写的文章道歉，他将会被免职。他在文章中要求保障中国宪法规定的权利。8月，他发表了一篇文章，详述共产党日益敌视中国的法律体系。文章发表之后，校方暂停了张雪忠的授课资格。
“我当时就跟他们说，我没有任何错误，”周二，他在电话采访中说，“我只是一个大学老师，发表自己的观点，想法和意见，这完全是我的权利和自由。你这个彻底地就是政治迫害。”
这所大学的管理者没有回复要求置评的电话和传真。不过，张教授获得了学校的一份内部备忘录，并于周二把它放到了网上。在这份备忘录当中，管理者还提到了张雪忠今年写的一本电子书，书名叫做《新常识：一党专政的性质与后果》。根据公告，张雪忠有违校规的行为是“向全校教职工强行传播其政治观点，还利用其教师身份在学生中传播其政治观点”。“我当时就跟他们说，我没有任何错误，”周二，他在电话采访中说，“我只是一个大学老师，发表自己的观点，想法和意见，这完全是我的权利和自由。你这个彻底地就是政治迫害。”
他被解聘一事肯定会让中国学术界不寒而栗，后者面临的压力业已不断增加，因为中国正在进行一场意识形态运动，希望以此控制自由主义，使人们臣服于执政党中国共产党。目前，美国教育机构正纷纷涌向中国，希望在中国开设分校，并与当地大学建立合作关系，有鉴于此，张雪忠被解聘的事情很可能会让人们对政治约束产生新的关注。即便在最受尊敬的中国学校，这种政治约束仍然在阻止人们公开讨论问题。
今年10月，北京大学解聘了著名经济学家夏业良，因为他激烈批判一党专政。管理者宣称，他们之所以拒绝与夏教授续签合约，是因为他教学质量差，而且未能达到学校的专著发表要求。
夏业良是多党竞选制的积极支持者。他表示，自己曾多次受到警告，要求他停止充满政治意味的言论和行动。
北京大学被认为是中国最杰出的教育机构之一，夏业良被北大解聘一事在国外引发了很大的反响，尤其是那些与北大有学术项目合作的美国和欧洲学校。一开始，这些学校表示了绝望和不满，反应最激烈的是威尔斯利学院(Wellesley College)和伦敦政治经济学院(London School of Economics)，尽管如此，这些学校均未改变与北大的关系。
俗称“华政”的华东政法大学在网站上称自己有三十多个国际合作项目，其中包括与俄勒冈州威拉姆特大学(Willamette University)合作的一个交换生项目，以及与威斯康星大学(University of Wisconsin)合作的一个项目。威斯康星大学与华政联合颁发法学硕士学位。
47岁的张雪忠之前就曾因自己的文章而与学校管理人员发生争执，不过，校方对他的不满在5月加深，因为张雪忠公布了一份秘密文件的内容。那是中央政府编制的一份文件，详细列举了中国教室里不允许讨论的七个话题。被禁止讨论的话题包括民主、言论自由和共产党过去的错误。
然而，他之所以与中国领导人为支持党至高无上地位而发起的一场运动发生了公开的冲突，还是因为他对中国1982年《宪法》的捍卫。2012年11月接掌大权后，习近平主席最初表示支持法治，但最近几个月，官方媒体却试图对宪政进行妖魔化，称之为西方颠覆共产党的阴谋。
张雪忠被解聘的原因似乎是他6月发表在网上的一篇文章，那篇文章题为《2013反宪政逆流的根源及危险》。他说，文章发表几天之后，四名学校领导把他叫到会议室，对他进行警告，说那篇文章既违反了中国的教师职业道德规范，也违反了中国的宪法。
在学校里，张雪忠似乎是个颇受欢迎的老师。在学生可以匿名评价老师的网站评师网上，张雪忠教授得到了4.6分，总分则是5分。网站上的21篇帖子大部分都是称赞他的。“知道您的事情，我们敬佩你，尊敬你，”发表于9月的一篇帖子说，“你是中华脊梁。”另一篇发表于8月的帖子则说，“老师是位有骨气的真正的勇士！”
身为执业维权律师的张雪忠教授说，在周一和学校领导开会期间，他并没有进行太多的争辩。相反，他告诫法学院院长，自己被解聘一事会给学校形象带来长期的危害。他说，当时他这么告诉院长，“对我个人的影响是暂时的，因为我会努力去找到新的工作，但是这个污点对华政的影响却是永久性的，永远也无法抹去的。”
Chinese Professor Who Advocated Free Speech Is Fired
By ANDREW JACOBS December 11, 2013
BEIJING — Officials at one of China’s most respected universities have reportedly fired an outspoken legal scholar for advocating free speech and for repeatedly calling on the government to abide by its own Constitution.
Zhang Xuezhong, who teaches at the East China University of Political Science and Law in Shanghai, said administrators notified him on Monday that he would be dismissed after he refused to apologize for writings that championed the protections guaranteed by China’s Constitution. Professor Zhang’s teaching privileges were temporarily suspended in August after the publication of an article detailing the Communist Party’s growing hostility toward the nation’s legal system.
“I told them I had made no mistakes whatsoever,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I’m just a university faculty member who expresses his own opinions, thoughts and proposals, which is absolutely my right. This is an out-and-out witch hunt.”
University officials did not respond to telephone calls and a fax seeking comment. But in an internal school memo that Professor Zhang obtained and circulated online Tuesday, officials also cited an e-book he wrote this year called “New Common Sense: The Nature and Consequences of One-Party Dictatorship.” According to the notice, Mr. Zhang violated university rules by “forcibly disseminating his political views among the faculty and using his status as a teacher to spread his political views among students.”“I told them I had made no mistakes whatsoever,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I’m just a university faculty member who expresses his own opinions, thoughts and proposals, which is absolutely my right. This is an out-and-out witch hunt.”
The dismissal is sure to send a chill through Chinese academia, which has come under increasing pressure amid an ideological campaign that seeks to rein in liberalism and promote obedience to the ruling Communist Party. At a time when American educational institutions are rushing to open Chinese branches and build partnerships with local universities, Professor Zhang’s removal is also likely to draw renewed attention to the political constraints that hamper open discourse at even the most respected Chinese schools.
In October, Peking University fired a noted economist who is a vociferous critic of single-party rule. Administrators claimed that their refusal to renew the contract of the professor, Xia Yeliang, was based on poor teaching and his failure to keep up the school’s publishing requirements.
Mr. Xia, a vocal champion of multiparty elections, said he had been repeatedly warned to tamp down his politically charged words and activism.
Mr. Xia’s dismissal reverberated well beyond China, especially on American and European campuses that share academic programs with Peking University, considered one of the nation’s most pre-eminent educational institutions. Despite some initial hand-wringing, notably at Wellesley College and the London School of Economics, none of the schools altered their relationship with Peking University.
On its website, East China University of Political Science and Law, commonly known as Hua Zheng, boasts of nearly three dozen international partnerships, including an exchange program with Willamette University in Oregon and another with the University of Wisconsin, which offers a joint master’s of law with the school.
Professor Zhang, 47, has had run-ins with school administrators over his writings, but their unhappiness with him deepened in May after he publicized the contents of a secret document, produced by the central government, detailing seven subjects that are not allowed to be discussed in Chinese classrooms. The banned topics included democracy, freedom of speech and past mistakes of the Communist Party.
But it was his defense of China’s 1982 Constitution that ran head-on into a campaign by the Chinese leadership that seeks to bolster the supremacy of the party. After assuming power in November 2012, President Xi Jinping initially expressed support for the rule of law, but in recent months the state-run media has sought to demonize constitutionalism as a Western plot to overthrow the party.
Professor Zhang’s undoing appears to be an article he published online in June titled “The Origin and the Perils of the Anti-Constitutionalism Campaign in 2013.” A few days later, he said, four school officials summoned him for a meeting to warn him that the article violated both the nation’s code of teaching ethics and the Chinese Constitution.
Professor Zhang appears to have been a fairly popular lecturer at the school. On Pinglaoshi, a website where students can anonymously evaluate their teachers, Professor Zhang received a rating of 4.6 on a scale of 5, with most of the 21 posts favorable. “We admire and respect you,” said one post from September. “You are China’s backbone.” A post from August said, “You are a true warrior with integrity.”
During his meeting with school officials on Monday, Professor Zhang, who is also a practicing rights lawyer, said he did not put up much of a fight. Instead, he warned the dean of the law school that his dismissal would do lasting harm to the school’s image. “The impacts to me will be short-lived because I can find another job, but the stain on the school’s reputation will be permanent,” he said he told the dean. “You can never wipe it clean.”
Patrick Zuo contributed research.
Copyright © 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
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