China: Fudan University Professor Kills Ruling Communist Party Secretary On Campus

A 39-year-old professor, identified with his last name as Jiang, killed Wang Yongzhen, 49, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), secretary at the school of Mathematics at China’s eminent Fudan University Shanghai, police and school authorities said as per a report in AP.

The school said that Yongzhen was killed on Monday (7 June) afternoon by Jiang using a knife, and the department had placed a working group to assist with the investigation fully.

Police said that Jiang had a spite against Wang and has accepted his guilt. The University also witnessed another murder in 2013 when a graduate student poisoned his roommate after a fight.

Party secretaries are everywhere in Chinese universities, instructed to maintain ideological purity, prevent disseminating Western concepts of human rights and free speech, and ensure students and faculty remain faithful to the party.

In the 2020 QS Asian University Rankings, Fudan University is ranked fourth in China and seventh in Asia. It is ranked at 70 in The Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 2021.

It has strong connections abroad, although its ties to China’s CCP have attracted dispute.

On Saturday (5 June), thousands of people gathered in Budapest, Hungary, opposing an agreement with Fudan University to open a branch in the city, citing the cost and ties to China’s autocratic rulers.