Students at the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai are outraged after “freedom of thought” was removed as a core value from its charter. Meanwhile, references that strengthen Communist Party’s leadership have been added to the charters of Fudan and two other universities. On December 18, students gathered on the 1st & 2nd floors of the Danyuan cafeteria in Guanghua Building at Fudan University to sing the school’s anthem, which specifically mentions “independent thinking.” By December 18 afternoon, a hashtag discussing Fudan University’s charter changes had been viewed more than 1.7 million times on Weibo, before being censored by the evening. Lu Xiaoping, Vice President of the literature school at Nanjing University, whose charter was also rewritten, posted a comment on Weibo on December 18 -- which was later deleted -- saying “If we do not speak out today about such a blatant challenge to the bottom line of education and academic ethics, I am afraid we will never have the chance!” Shaanxi Normal University, in northwestern China, was the third university to have its charter altered.
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