The United States on Tuesday asked China to release a respected Chinese academician, imprisoned for criticizing President Xi Jinping's handling of the Covid-19 crisis. " We are deeply concerned about the detention of Professor Xu Zhangrun by the People's Republic of China (PRC), " said State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus.
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" The PRC must release Xu and maintain its commitments to respect freedom of expression, " she added on Twitter. Xu Zhangrun, a professor of law at Tsinghua University, had published in early 2020 in Hong Kong texts criticizing a grabbing of power by Xi Jinping.
In February, he denounced the culture of staging and censorship encouraged by the president, which he believed contributed to the spread of Covid-19 in the country. He was arrested on Monday at his home in the suburbs of Beijing by more than 20 people. For several months, Washington has multiplied criticism of Beijing, especially in the area of human rights management.