“Here’s a guy who promotes market reforms, human rights and limited constitutional democracy, and we share those values,” said Ian Vásquez, director of Cato’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity. “If he can use the Cato platform to call attention to the most urgent reforms, both economic and social, in China, that would be a lot.”

Peking University allowed Professor Xia to leave China to become a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, starting in July 2011 and then at Stanford the next year.

But in March 2012, as Professor Xia’s year at U.C.L.A. was nearing its end, Wen Jiabao, who was prime minister of China, gave a speech calling for reform of the Communist Party’s leadership and the country. Professor Xia took to social media, including his blog, to urge gatherings around China to press for change.

His actions angered the Chinese authorities, who ordered him back to China in January 2013. He was told in June that there would be a vote on his employment at the university, and in October he was dismissed.

Peking University has partnerships with many American universities, and as word spread that he would most likely be fired, Professor Xia became a symbol of Chinese scholars’ limited academic freedom.

At Wellesley, which had recently signed a partnership with Peking University, more than 130 professors declared in an open letter in September that they would seek to have the agreement reconsidered if Professor Xia was fired for political reasons. After the dismissal, Peking University said the reason was poor teaching.

Professor Xia said the dean of economics, Sun Qixiang, had told him that the foreign support hurt him. “She said, ‘You were exploited by them,’ ” he said. “She formally told me, ‘You think we all have to listen to American professors, but you’re wrong. If they didn’t do this, you wouldn’t be in this position.”