A Chinese professor who advocates for university students to “return to rural areas” has been asked to come clean after a netizen has accused him of sending his children overseas.

Yu Hongjung, head of Peking University’s School of Marxism, has been said to have sent his children to study in Australia and the United States even though he had previously asked Chinese university students to be patriotic and to offer education, health and agricultural services in rural towns.

The accusation was made in a NetEase blog post, but the author did not specify how the information was obtained. Netizens have since criticised Yu for being hypocritical and urged him to come clean.

Yu has advocated for a revival of “going up the hills and down to rural towns” — an idea tied to the violent Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976 — since 2009. In 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested that 10 million urban youths should be sent to rural towns every summer.

Chinese patriots and top officials have increasingly been criticized for sending their children abroad. Fudan University professor Chen Ping was found to have been living and buying properties in the United States despite having previously given anti-American speeches.

Xi’s daughter Mingze received her undergraduate education at Harvard University.

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