Christopher Balding, who successfully lobbied Cambridge University Press to unblock articles it censored at Beijing’s request, ‘does not feel safe’ as a professor in China
An American professor and vocal critic of Beijing’s censorship has said he has lost his job at the prestigious Peking University and is leaving China.
Christopher Balding, who had taught for the past nine years at Peking University’s HSBC School of Business in Shenzhen, said in a blog post on Tuesday that the school had not renewed his contract.
Balding wrote in his post that he was given an “official” reason for his contract not being renewed, but added: “I know the unspoken reason for my dismissal.” He said he was notified in early November that his contract would not be renewed.
“You do not work under the Communist Party without knowing the risks,” he wrote.
Balding, an associate professor at the HSBC School of Business, did not respond to an emailed request for comment, and his Chinese mobile phone number was disconnected.
Officials at Peking University in Beijing and at the business school campus in Shenzhen could not immediately be reached for comment.
Under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has stepped up censorship and tightened controls over the internet and various aspects of civil society, as well as reasserting Communist Party authority over academia and other institutions.
