The East China University of Political Science and Law has announced it will not renew its teaching contract with outspoken law professor Zhang Xuezhong, as he disseminated his own political opinions to university staff, according to a notice the university published on Monday on its intranet.

The notice that circulated online, confirmed by Liu Xinquan, dean of the law school at the university and Qiu Pingge, a law professor of the university with the Global Times on Tuesday, said that Zhang has breached school regulations and the law school decided not to renew his contract.

Zhang used the school's  automatic communication system to publish a book entitled New Common Sense, the notice said, adding he also took advantage of his identity as a professor to transmit his political thoughts during classes.

As Zhang's acts seriously violated teachers' professional ethics and he did not realize or correct them, according to the regulations and procedures of the school, Zhang's contract will not be renewed.

Zhang was suspended from teaching in August for expressing political opinions that go against the law.

Zhang claimed that he did not know about the notice until someone at the school sent it to him, as his connection with the university intranet was cut off.

Zhang added that sending his article to the automatic communication system and letting other teachers read it should not be counted as breaching school regulations.

He refused to make further comments when reached by the Global Times.

The university expected Zhang to correct his mistakes after he published an article about Marxism in China on the Singapore-based Lianhe Zaobao in 2009, however, Zhang still published his opinions on the Internet, the Global Times reported earlier.