Chinese U fires history professor who authored book on Tiananmen exiles

A history professor who lectures on China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown was fired by the Chinese University of Hong Kong after her working visa renewal was denied by the Hong Kong administration.

Rowena He Xiaoqing, a Canadian national, was an associate professor of history at the CUHK since 2019.

The China-born scholar also authored a 2014 book on Tiananmen exiles.

A note on the CUHK website yesterday said He was "currently on leave."

He - who is currently in the United States - confirmed that her employment was "terminated with immediate effect."

She told Hong Kong media she had mixed feelings about her visa renewal being denied and being fired by the university.

She said she applied for a visa extension to the Immigration Department in early July last year and was required to submit supplementary information the following month, including her duties and sources of funds when she was working at the Harvard University and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.

She has been on "academic leave" in North Carolina in the US since then and had originally planned to return to the SAR in June to continue her work.

He said she cherishes the freedom in Hong Kong, adding students with different opinions could freely discuss on campus.

"If we cannot protect academic freedom in class, research will become meaningless," she added.

In a statement issued on Saturday night, the Hong Kong administration said it would not comment on individual cases.

"As regards the handling of visa applications, the Immigration Department acts in accordance with the law and relevant policies (including that an applicant should meet normal immigration requirements, such as holding a valid travel document with adequate returnability to his/her country of residence or citizenship; be of clear criminal record and raise no security or criminal concerns to the HKSAR; have no likelihood of becoming a burden on the HKSAR, etc) in handling each application and will determine each application on its individual merits," it read.

A CUHK spokesman said the "employment of non-permanent residents is conditional upon the possession of a valid visa."

"Visa decisions are a matter for the Immigration Department and the university is unable to influence visa outcomes, nor is it aware of the circumstances of individual cases," he added.

He received her PhD from the University of Toronto and formerly taught at the Harvard University.

She currently has a research post at the University of Texas at Austin, as per their website, and was born and raised in China.

Lau Siu-kai, a consultant to the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said such an incident is rare, adding that foreign academics would not usually have their visas denied even if their research involves sensitive topics.

Lau said that He might have politically incited others, drawing the administration's attention.

"[The government denied the visa extension] to prevent the local situation from deteriorating instead of punishing someone."