China cracked down on dissent, tightens censorship under Xi Jinping (File)
Beijing:
A Beijing law professor who openly criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party has been dismissed from his university after being released from a week-long detention, his friends said.
Xu Zhangrun, professor of constitutional law at the prestigious Tsinghua University, returned home Sunday morning, six days after being taken away by the police.
In a text message shown to Reuters by one of his friends, Xu told the friend that he had been “relieved of his teaching and public duties” by Tsinghua University.
Repeated phone calls to Xu went unanswered on Tuesday.
Tsinghua University did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The university has suspended Xu from teaching since 2019, his friends said.
Xu, 57, became famous in July 2018 for denouncing the removal of the two-term limit for the Chinese leader.
Earlier this month, Xu was taken from his home on the outskirts of Beijing by police, who searched his home and confiscated his computer, according to a text message sent to Xu’s friends and seen by Reuters.
Police told his wife that he was detained for allegedly requesting prostitution during a trip to Chengdu, said his friends, who dismissed the allegation as a murder.
At the height of the coronavirus epidemic in China in February, Xu wrote an article calling for freedom of expression. In May, he wrote an article accusing Xi of trying to bring the cultural revolution back to China.
Under Xi, China suppressed dissent and tightened censorship.
(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian; Editing by Tony Munroe, William Maclean)
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
