A Chinese university professor has been suspended after she expressed sympathy on social media towards a Hong Kong student who died during an anti-government protest last year, and also for questioning the official Chinese death toll in the Nanking Massacre.

Liang Yanping, who taught literature at Hubei University, was also expelled from the Chinese Communist Party. In a university press release, Liang was said to have “seriously breached the party’s regulations” and “not abided by the professional morals of teachers.”

It said Liang was a “bad influence” to society and it was a unanimous decision reached between university and party officials. Her social media posts “about Hong Kong and Japan” were cited as a catalyst for her suspension, but no further details were given.

Liang had posted “walk away well” — a Chinese way to say “rest in peace” — last November following the death of Hong Kong student Chow Tsz-lok. Chow fell to his death from a Tseung Kwan O car park as police were dispersing protesters nearby. The exact circumstances that led to his fall are still unknown, but anti-government protesters in Hong Kong are sympathetic towards Chow and some have suspected he was the victim of foul play by Hong Kong police.

Liang has also posted a picture of her wearing a black cap and black mask — seen by some Chinese netizens as voicing support to protesters in Hong Kong, as they are usually clad in black clothing during demonstrations.

In December 2012, Liang doubted the Chinese official number of deaths in the Nanking Massacre in another post. “If you say 300,000 people have died, then you should give a list of 300,000 names,” she wrote. The death toll in the six-week massacre by Japanese soldiers from December 1937 has been disputed amongst academics, with mainstream scholars estimating the number to be anywhere from 40,000 to over 300,000.

Liang’s earlier social media posts were uncovered after she voiced support for award-winning writer Fang Fang, who was attacked by the government and netizens for her book “Wuhan Diary”. The book is based on Fang Fang’s daily entries in her social media account about daily life in Wuhan — the first city in the world to undergo a strict lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. It is seen by the Chinese government and patriots as discrediting China’s effort to combat COVID-19.

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