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A Beijing law professor who has been an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist Party and President Xi Jinping was taken away by authorities on Monday, a number of friends and colleagues instructed Reuters.
Xu Zhangrun, 57, a professor on the prestigious Tsinghua University, got here to prominence in July 2018 for denouncing the removing of the two-term restrict for China’s chief, which permits Xi to stay in workplace past his present second time period.
According to a textual content message circulated amongst Xu’s friends and seen by Reuters, he was taken from his home in suburban Beijing on Monday morning by greater than 20 policemen, who additionally searched his home and confiscated his pc.
Multiple cellphone calls to Beijing police and the media division of Tsinghua University went unanswered. Police in Beijing’s Changping district declined to remark.
One of Xu’s friends, who didn’t wish to be named, instructed Reuters that he had not been capable of contact Xu since listening to information of his detainment.
The good friend mentioned that at a gathering in January, Xu mentioned he was mentally ready for no matter punishment might await him.
He Weifang, a outstanding Peking University law professor who has lengthy recognized Xu, instructed Reuters that he understood from one among Xu’s Tsinghua colleagues that Xu had been detained.
He instructed Reuters that Xu had been deeply nervous and anxious about China’s course lately.
“He felt that the country was going backwards and that as a public intellectual, he has the duty to speak up,” He mentioned.
He mentioned Xu was final seen by friends on Sunday.
Since the 2018 article, Xu has written different critiques of the social gathering. At the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak in February, he wrote an article calling for freedom of speech.
Most not too long ago in May, earlier than China’s delayed annual parliamentary assembly, he wrote an article accusing Xi of attempting to carry the Cultural Revolution again to China.
Under Xi, China has tightened censorship and clamped down on dissent.
In March, an influential former property govt and Communist Party member named Ren Zhiqiang went lacking, three of his friends instructed Reuters on the time.
Ren had referred to as Xi a “clown” over a speech the president made in regards to the authorities’s efforts to battle the coronavirus.
Beijing’s municipal anti-corruption watchdog later mentioned Ren was underneath investigation for “serious disciplinary violation”.
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