A Chinese professor who criticized President Xi Jinping and the supposed role of his governance in the Covid-19 epidemic has been released after nearly a week in detention, friends said on Monday.
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Employed by the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, Xu Zhangrun is one of the rare academics to dare to openly criticize the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The law professor was arrested at his home on July 6 by more than 20 people, according to relatives. But he was able to return to his home in the suburbs of the capital on Sunday and is doing well, two of his friends confirmed to AFP, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisals.
China is ruled " tyrannically "
Xu Zhangrun had published a collection of his texts in Hong Kong in early 2020. He criticized what he presented as a grabbing of power by Xi Jinping since his arrival in business in late 2012. The professor also wrote in February an article denouncing the culture of staging and censorship encouraged by the president, which is believed to have contributed to the spread of Covid-19 disease in the country.
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China is " ruled by one man " who " governs in a tyrannical way ", wrote Xu Zhangrun in particular. In a text posted on the internet in 2018, he also denounced the abolition by the Chinese Parliament in the same year of the limit of two presidential terms. A constitutional change that allows Xi Jinping to stay in power without time limit. Beijing police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP on Monday.
The professor's wife had received a call on July 6 from a person posing as a police officer and justifying the arrest of her husband by the fact that he would have used the services of a prostitute, said a relative to the 'AFP. The United States and the European Union (EU) last week called on China to release the professor. Many Chinese academics say they have seen an increase in ideological control and a decline in freedom of tone since Xi Jinping came to power.