Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) on Monday said that he had invited exiled Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹) to teach in the special municipality, following Chinese-language news reports over the weekend that Wang had been “surprised and happy” by a telephone call from Lai on Saturday.
However, Lai said Wang told him that he was in contact with several universities and was still assessing his situation.
Lai said he decided to make the call after learning Wang’s contract at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu would not be renewed.
Wang holds a doctorate in history from Harvard University and has performed well at Tsing Hua, Lai said, adding: “If Tainan’s universities, such as Chang Jung Christian University, can hire Wang to teach, it will be beneficial to students.”
Reports said that Lai had checked with Chang Jung Christian University to see whether there were any courses suitable for Wang to teach.
Wang had earlier written on Facebook that Tsing Hua president Hong Ho-cheng (賀陳弘) had informed him on Wednesday last week that his contract would not be renewed after it expires in July because the school has a policy of not renewing contracts of faculty working on a contractual basis.
Wang, one of the student leaders of the 1989 pro-democracy protests at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, was hired by Tsing Hua in 2012 on a three-year contract.
Wang recently made comments in defense of Sunflower movement student leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) — after incidents of purported sexual harassment came to light following Chen’s decision to run in a Miaoli County by-election — that were sharply criticized and triggered demands by some that the school not retain Wang.
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