A talk scheduled to be held Monday in Communication University of China (CUC) by celebrity commentator Sima Nan was unexpectedly cancelled, causing debate as to whether the university has been swayed by ideological issues.

The talk, organized by the CUC's student council as part of a school reading festival, was called off Sunday evening. The student council said they were advised of radical comments after announcing Sima will be one of speakers. "As the organizer, we are not sure whether those who wrote the comments will jeopardize order in the venue as they have said. Due to safety concerns, we have decided to cancel the event," the student council said in a Sina Weibo post on Sunday night. While the student council insisted the talk was cancelled due to safety concerns, the speaker himself attributed the cancellation to a clash of political stance between him and school management. "I was told by a friend working in the university that the school management has been 'unhappy' about my political stance and thought I am a politically controversial figure, so they pressured the student council [to cancel the event]," Sima told the Global Times on Monday. Sima, who rose to fame as a critic of pseudoscience, has become active in political commentary in recent years, espousing a conservative political stance and criticizing Western values. The cancellation came after a recent high-profile commentary in Liaoning Daily saying that some college teachers were criticizing the government's policies and pushing for China to pursue a Western model.

"The CUC, which has been dodging the issue of ideological struggle by trying to avoid discussion about the Liaoning Daily report, thinks that I will bring up this subject in my speech," said Sima, adding that as a more rightist school, CUC hires more liberal lecturers. "Rightists" in China typically favor increased reform and liberalization. Online discussion has been heated since the cancellation was announced. Although some said that Sima's supporters are too conservative, others said that universities should allow both conservative and liberal voices to be heard.