Lara Farrar

Despite the end last week of the 16-day U.S. government shutdown and the extension of the debt ceiling until next year, there are few signs that the situation has reassured China, the largest holder of American debt.

The move against Xia Yeliang appears to reflect a crackdown on liberal academics that’s become more severe since President Xi Jinping came to power in March. Several well-known universities – including the London School of Economics, Yale and Cornell – have partnerships with Peking, though few have taken up Xia’s cause.

Zhang Mei Lian is worried about her 16-year-old son. Worried that he’s falling behind his female classmates in school. Worried that he isn’t athletic enough, that he doesn’t know how to repair things, such as computers or a broken light. Worried that, in short, he doesn’t know how to be a man.

On the campus of Beijing Normal University, professors say they’ve noticed a trend that worries them: students embracing radical leftism. They advocate a return to the socialist state that Communist Party founder Mao Zedong favored and that Chinese leaders for the last generation have tried to put behind them.