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 
 
 
 
 ||||| But in recent years, the government has done little to prevent a resurgence of sexism and workplace discrimination. Men dominate the party’s upper ranks, and government officials and powerful business executives are often protected from allegations of wrongdoing. 
 
 Laws on rape and harassment are vague, legal experts say, and courts do not often rule in favor of women who pursue complaints against employers. Employers rarely investigate complaints or dole out meaningful punishments. 
 
 “Most victims remain silent,” said Li Ying, a lawyer and the director of the Beijing Yuanzhong Gender Development Center, an advocacy group. “They can’t afford to lose their jobs.” 
 
 The #MeToo movement is largely limited to educated, urban women. Many have been inspired by Luo Xixi, a graduate of Beihang University, an aeronautics school in Beijing, who recently published an essay online that was read by more than three million people. Ms. Luo said she was one of seven women who had been harassed by a professor, Chen Xiaowu. 
 
 More than a decade ago, she wrote, Mr. Chen lured her off campus and tried to have sex with her, despite her pleas that he stop. He denied the allegations, but the university fired him this month, saying he had harassed several students. 
 
 In her essay, Ms. Luo urged Chinese women to “stand up bravely and say ‘No!’ ” 
 
 Some have described her story as the “first step in the Long March” against sexual harassment in China. But Ms. Luo, who now lives in the United States, said the movement would need to be “mild and gentle” to avoid pushback from the government. ||||| 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".
– 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.