Professor missing as radio show interrupted
BEIJING: The whereabouts of a Chinese professor known for his critical views of the government remained unknown yesterday, two days after police interrupted his radio interview with US government broadcaster Voice of America.
Sun Wenguang was speaking to the network on Wednesday night when he says half a dozen officers barged into his apartment in the eastern city of Jinan. He can be heard exclaiming that “I have my freedom of speech’’ just before the line went dead.
VOA said the former Shandong University physics professor had not responded to attempts to contact him, but that sources it did not identify said he was being held in a military-run hotel in Jinan.
Calls yesterday to the Jinan police publicity office rang unanswered. An official who refused to give his name at the publicity department of the Communist Party Committee of Shandong University said he was not aware of the incident.
Prof Sun, 84, has long been critical of China’s Communist leadership, most recently protesting China’s vast expenditures on development projects abroad at a time when many Chinese remain poor.
That’s seen as a knock on President and party leader Xi Jinping’s signature “Belt and Road’’ initiative that has earmarked an estimated $1 trillion for ports, power plants and other projects linking China to parts of Asia, Europe, Africa and beyond. The initiative has recently run into headwinds as the countries involved baulk at the massive debts they stand to incur.
Before the line went dead, Prof Sun said “throwing money around like this is of no benefit to our country and society’’.
Prof Sun was also an early co-signer of “Charter 08’’, a call for democratic reform whose co-author, Liu Xiaobo, won the Nobel Peace Prize but died last year while serving a sentence for subversion.
Prof Sun’s views have brought official retribution ranging from a seven-year prison sentence to being denied a passport and having his pension cut.
Responding to Prof Sun’s apparent detention, US Rep Chris Smith from New Jersey issued a statement Thursday calling for the professor’s immediate release.
“The Chinese and American people must continue to work toward a day when someone like Prof Sun can openly share his opinions, via a free press, without fear of reprisal,’’ Mr Smith said.