Xu Liangying (May 3, 1920 - January 28, 2013), a native of Linhai, Zhejiang Province, was a physicist, historian and philosopher of natural science, and a campaigner for democracy.
Xu graduated from the Physics Department of Zhejiang University in 1942 and then started teaching there in 1945. In 1946, he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and became the underground CCP party secretary at Zhejiang University in 1947. In 1950, he became an official of the Communist Youth League of China in Hangzhou City, before transferring to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1952.
At the CAS, he once worked as a general censor, checking scientific papers for counter-revolutionary tendencies or content that jeopardized national security. In 1957, Xu was labeled a Rightist for criticizing the Anti-Rightist Campaign, expelled from public office and the CCP, and sent back to his hometown to work as a farmer for 20 years. After rehabilitation in 1978, Xu was reinstated to the CCP and returned to the CAS to work as a researcher at the Institute for the History of Natural Science.
Xu’s main research interest was history and philosophy of science, especially on Einstein's thoughts and the interrelationship between science and society. He published more than 200 papers and edited many books.
Believing that only freedom and democracy can promote scientific progress, Xu wrote articles calling for political reform, and twice initiated joint letters from scientists calling for improvement of the human rights situation in China.
