Prof should pay for crime if guilty

Police should launch an investigation to find out whether accusations that a Xiamen University professor raped some of his female students are true, says an article in Beijing News. Excerpts:

A blog has "exposed" that Wu Chunming, a professor of history in Xiamen University, forced some female students into having sex with him. Xiamen University authorities responded to the "expose" by ordering a probe and suspending Wu from taking classes during investigation period.

But since Wu is accused of committing the crime of rape, the matter should also be investigated by police. Judicial authorities know how to distinguish coercive sexual intercourse from consensual sex. Consensual sex does not involve coercion, threat or violence. And if Wu has used any of these methods to force the students to have sex with him, he has broken the law.

Moreover, if Wu threatened the victims that he would reject their dissertations or use other means to prevent them from graduating until they had sex with him, he should be punished according to the law. And if accusations that Wu used university funds to book hotel rooms for his heinous acts, he should also be punished for corruption. Also it is extremely important that they take measures to protect the identity of the victims during the entire investigation and judicial process.