David Yeliang Xia Meets with Professors Cushman, Reverby, and Others

Peking University economics professor David Yeliang Xia recently visited Wellesley at the invitation of Deffenbaugh de Hoyos Carlson Professor in the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology Thomas Cushman, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Susan Reverby, and several other faculty members, who hoped to learn more about his experience and views. 

Xia has been at Peking University since 2000, and last year he was a visiting professor at Stanford University. His research fields include institutional economics, macroeconomic analysis and public policy, economic history, and labor economics.

Cushman describes Xia as a leading classical liberal economist in China, and an active advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and individual freedom; and further relates that Xia is threatened with a vote of expulsion from his university later this year because of his outspoken critiques of China's government.

During Xia's visit, Cushman and Reverby recorded a wide-ranging conversation with him, from his personal bio to his dissident actions to his broadest hopes for China.

Cushman is planning a conference on human rights at Wellesley in October, and Xia has expressed his plan to come.