Anti-Communist Historian of China Yu Ying-shih Mourned After Death at 91

Scholars and activists are mourning Yu Ying-shih, a noted scholar of Chinese history at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica and vocal critic of the Communist government in Beijing, who died on Aug. 1 at age 91 at his home in the United States. Wang Fan-Sen, an Academia Sinica scholar who studied under Yu at Princeton University, called him a thinker with conscience and strength of character who was a model for intellectuals.

“Professor Yu once said that back in his hometown in Anhui when he was young, there was a battalion commander who bullied the local people. He wrote a letter to report him, but for some reason that letter was leaked.”

Discussing the incident, Yu emphasized that ‘No one should bully anyone.’ This demonstrated his respect for and belief in human rights,” Wang said. Yu was a lifelong critic of the Chinese Communist Party who had advocated for human rights, maintained strong concern for Hong Kong and Taiwan. “The June 4th Tiananmen Incident dealt me the biggest blow,” Yu once told RFA. “Before that, I did not go back to China because I really did not want to. But after that incident, I absolutely could not go back, on principle, because I cannot show any support for a government regime like that.”

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