Voice of America
12 Jul 2020, 17:35 GMT+10
BEIJING - A Beijing law professor who has been an outspoken critic of China's President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party was released on Sunday after six days of detention, his friends said.
Xu Zhangrun, a constitutional law professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University, returned home on Sunday morning but remained under surveillance and was not free to speak publicly about what happened, one of his friends, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Calls to the media departments of the Beijing police and Tsinghua University seeking comment went unanswered on Sunday.
Xu, 57, came to prominence in July 2018 for denouncing the removal of the two-term limit for China's leader, which will allow Xi to remain in office beyond his current second term.
According to a text message circulated among Xu's friends and seen by Reuters, he was taken from his house in suburban Beijing on Monday morning by more than 20 policemen, who searched his house and confiscated his computer.
According to Xu's friends, police told his wife that he was being detained for allegedly soliciting prostitution during a trip to Chengdu, but at least two friends dismissed that allegation as character assassination.
Since the 2018 article, Xu has written other critiques of the party. At the peak of China's coronavirus outbreak in February, he wrote an article calling for freedom of speech.
Most recently in May, before China's delayed annual parliamentary meeting, he wrote an article accusing Xi of trying to bring the Cultural Revolution back to China.
Under Xi, China has clamped down on dissent and tightened censorship.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Tuesday the United States was deeply concerned about China's detention of Xu and urged Beijing to release him.
Get a daily dose of Oakland Times news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Oakland Times.
More InformationPALO ALTO/TEL AVIV: The battle for top AI talent has claimed another high-profile casualty—this time at Safe Superintelligence (SSI),...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Trump administration has made public a visa decision that would usually be kept private. It did this to send...
FRANKLIN, Tennessee: Hundreds of thousands of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles are being recalled across the United States due to a potential...
REDMOND, Washington: Microsoft is the latest tech giant to announce significant job cuts, as the financial strain of building next-generation...
LONDON UK - U.S. stock markets were closed on Friday for Independence Day. Global Forex Markets Wrap Up Friday with Greeback Comeback...
SANTA CLARA, California: Nvidia came within a whisker of making financial history on July 3, briefly surpassing Apple's all-time market...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Trump administration has made public a visa decision that would usually be kept private. It did this to send...
MADRID, Spain: Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota and his younger brother, André Silva, have died in a car accident in Spain. Spanish...
LONDON, U.K.: An unrelenting heatwave sweeping across Europe has pushed early summer temperatures to historic highs, triggering deadly...
President Donald Trump's plans to build a space-based Golden Dome missile defense shield have drawn immediate criticism from China,...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: Paramount has agreed to pay US$16 million to settle a lawsuit brought by U.S. President Donald Trump over...
LONDON, U.K.: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won a vote in Parliament this week to move ahead with changes to the country's welfare...