After more than three months of "silence", the authorities of Xiamen University in Fujian province have finally made public the result of a probe into the sex scandal involving a history professor. On Oct 14, the university said on its micro blog that Wu Chunming had been expelled from the Party and removed from his professor's post for sexually harassing a female student and having sex with another.

The announcement came a day after a TV program telecast a third female student's allegation of sexual harassment against Wu, including sensational descriptions such as "Wu taking out a condom in his office and asking her to have sex with him".

The first allegations against Wu were posted on the Internet in early July by female students, who charged him with enticing them into having sex with him and sexually molesting them, shocking the entire nation and sparking widespread concern over the moral degradation of intellectuals. Two days later, Xiamen University announced that a special team had been formed to probe the case and Wu was temporarily barred from teaching, enrolling or advising students for the duration of the investigation.

But apart from announcing on July 21 that the probe team had received no evidence to prove the sexual enticement allegation against Wu, the university authorities did not issue any information about the investigation. People did not even know whether the probe was continuing in the intervening period.

That's why people consider Wu's punishment to be Xiamen University's knee-jerk response to the latest allegation against him. As to earlier media reports that Wu reimbursed the invoices for "booking hotel rooms" to have sex with "female students" from his "research funds", the university responded on Thursday with no factual findings.