Peking University to implement sex harassment rules 
 
 One of China's top universities has vowed to formulate a set of rules on sexual harassment, after allegations that a former university professor had sexually harassed a student who later committed suicide shocked Chinese society. 
 
 
 
 Peking University (PKU) announced Sunday it will respond robustly to mounting calls to investigate the allegations involving Shen Yang, 62, the university said on its website. 
 
 
 
 Shen, a Chinese language professor, is accused of sexually assaulting female student Gao Yan, who committed suicide in 1998, aged 21. 
 
 
 
 The case resurfaced this week after several people who claimed to be the victim's former classmates published the allegations online and demanded a thorough investigation. 
 
 
 
 Peking University published on Sunday the details of a 1998 inquiry, in which it admitted that Shen and Gao had established a "relationship," and that Gao committed suicide 10 months after Shen ended it. Shen was given an administrative punishment, the university said. 
 
 
 
 Shen, speaking to China News Weekly on Saturday, did not address the allegations, although he said he was given an "administrative penalty" in 1998, and that it did not involve moral issues. 
 
 
 
 Shen left Peking University in 2011 and has been working at Nanjing University since, according to media reports. 
 
 
 
 The School of Liberal Arts at Nanjing University said Saturday that it had suggested Shen should quit as it is no longer appropriate for him to teach. The school also admitted it was negligent in failing to properly investigate Shen. He was also employed part-time at Shanghai Normal University, which issued a statement on Saturday saying it had terminated his contract. 
 
 
 
 In a previous case, Chen Xiaowu, a professor at Beihang University in Beijing, was dismissed in January following confirmation that he had sexually harassed students. 
 
 
 
 Global Times 
 
 Newspaper headline: PKU to implement sex harassment rules ||||| A second Chinese professor has been sacked by his university after allegations of historic sexual misconduct were made, as China's own brand of '#Metoo' struggles to gather pace. 
 
 Womens' rights activists in China have focused on the country's campuses to fight an online battle against sexual harassment. 
 
 Allegations that Shen Yang, a language professor, assaulted a female student 20 years ago were posted online by a someone who claimed to be a former classmate of the victim. 
 
 The assault was alleged to have happened when Shen lectured at Peking University, and the victim, a female student, committed suicide in 1998, Xinhua news agency said. 
 
 The university said in an online post that it served Shen with a "warning penalty" at the time, after police found he had "violated teachers' morality". 
 
 The School of Liberal Arts at Nanjing University and Shanghai Normal University, where Shen holds current roles, both recently announced in online posts that they had cut ties with the professor. 
 
 Shen could not be contacted by The Telegraph, but he told Chinese media that the allegations against him were "malicious defamation", "pathetic" and were based on "public opinion". ||||| In China, Death Of A Young College Grad Sparks Protest From Fellow Alumni 
 
 China's police are under fire this week as citizens blast Beijing authorities' decision not to prosecute police following the death of a 28-year-old environmentalist, Lei Yang. 
 
 Many observers see this as a landmark case that flies in the face of pledges by China's leaders to prevent miscarriages of justice and curb the arbitrary exercise of state power. 
 
 The case is also drawing attention because college graduates are the ones speaking out. Thousands of alumni of Lei's alma mater, the prestigious People's University, and other top schools have petitioned online against the authorities' decision. 
 
 Lawyers, family members and supporters declined to be interviewed about the case. Many of their social media postings have been censored, and many facts about the case have not been made public. 
 
 What is known is that on the night of May 7, Lei left his home for the airport, intending to pick up relatives. Prosecutors allege that, on the way, he visited a foot massage parlor, of the sort that are often thinly disguised brothels, and paid for sexual services there. Prostitution is illegal but commonplace in China. 
 
 When questioned by plainclothes police, Lei allegedly struggled violently and tried to escape. Prosecutors say police put him in a chokehold and stepped on his face and neck. A little over an hour later, Lei was dead. 
 
 Police said Lei suffered a heart attack. Prosecutors later said Lei choked on his own vomit. Police also said that video footage they shot of the incident was lost or damaged. The encounter was apparently random and not related to his environmental work. 
 
 Criticism, but no prosecution 
 
 Last Friday, Beijing prosecutors issued a statement saying police exceeded the bounds of reasonable law enforcement, that they should have taken him to a hospital in a timely manner. They add that the police hid, fabricated or misrepresented the facts of Lei's case and obstructed an official investigation into it. 
 
 But they also said the police had repented, and their infractions were minor, and therefore no charges were brought against them. 
 
 On Thursday, police announced that the deputy head of the local police station involved in the case and other people involved were fired from their jobs, kicked out of the Communist Party or given other administrative punishments. 
 
 In a social media post Thursday, Chen Youxi, a prominent lawyer representing the Lei family, said the family was unable to withstand the mental anguish of the case, and had dropped plans for further legal action. 
 
 One conclusion observers are drawing is that authorities decided to placate law enforcement. 
 
 "I suppose they had complex considerations," Tong Zhiwei, a law scholar at the East China University of Politics and Law in Shanghai, said of the authorities, "which may have included worry that they would hurt the policemen's enthusiasm in performing their duties." 
 
 In addition to fighting crime, Chinese police are responsible for suppressing political dissent, a task the government euphemistically calls "maintaining stability." 
 
 "As a legal scholar, my view is that the four or five police in this case, or at least some of them, should be convicted," Tong says. "I won't conceal my opinion." 
 
 Another common perception here is that this incident generated seldom-seen animosity toward authorities among China's college-educated citizens. Tong says this is simply because, in Lei Yang, they see themselves. 
 
 Contrasting cases 
 
 Other commentators have contrasted the fate of Lei Yang with that of Jia Jinglong. Dissatisfied with government compensation for the demolition of his home, the 30-year-old farmer killed a village official with a nail gun. 
 
 Jia was executed last month, despite a public outcry. In comparing the two cases, some believe that Chinese authorities can kill civilians virtually with impunity, but civilians who kill authorities — an act that suggests violent revolution — will be put to death as a warning to others. 
 
 China's leaders have insisted, however, that they want justice to be apparent in every court case, and they want public trust in China's judiciary restored. 
 
 Some observers have been heartened by the reversal of several miscarriages of justice. In the latest, China's Supreme Court exonerated a man who had been executed 21 years ago for a rape and murder to which another man later confessed. 
 
 Police powers have steadily been growing. Spending on domestic security reportedly outstripped China's military budget in 2013. 
 
 China's Constitution specifies that police, prosecutors and courts are supposed to check and balance one another. 
 
 But Chinese legal scholars describe the real power structure of China's law enforcement system with a restaurant metaphor: "The police cook it, the prosecutors serve it, and the courts eat it."
– Earlier this year, the New York Times reported on China's emerging #MeToo movement, noting that "silence breakers" in the male-dominated culture face the added obstacle of government censors. It now describes how a 20-year-old alleged rape case has broken through barriers to bring about change. It centers on Gao Yan, a 21-year-old who committed suicide in 1998 after claiming she was raped by Peking University professor Shen Yang, whom Gao said had then started a rumor that she had a mental illness. Shared recently by her former classmates—including one who wrote a widely read essay targeting Shen, who denies the allegations—Gao's story is seen as an example of the abuse suffered by women in China, per the Times, and universities including Peking, which Shen left in 2011, have responded with promises to do better. Nanjing University and Shanghai Normal University, schools where Shen taught recently, say they've ended relationships with the professor, reports the Telegraph. Peking University, meanwhile, says Shen received a "warning penalty" after police found he'd "violated teachers' morality" in 1998, per the Telegraph. The school is now promising to institute new rules on sexual harassment, reports Global News, but student activists are cautious. One tells the Times that Peking has "shown no sense of introspection about the unequal power dynamics between students and teachers" since Gao's death. "Merely resolving one or two specific cases is meant to gag the public," she adds. Speaking of gag orders, the Times reports an article published by Chinese media Monday contained sexual harassment accusations against Shen by a second student, but that article was quickly deleted.