Chinese academic freed after blaming pandemic on Xi Jinping’s despotism

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South Africa Headlines News

Law professor Xu Zhangrun was taken from his home in Beijing by a group of more than 20 people on July 6

A Chinese academic who penned an essay blaming the coronavirus pandemic on President Xi Jinping’s authoritarianism and censorship has been released after nearly a week in detention, his friends have told AFP.

In an essay published on overseas websites, Xu had written that the leadership system under Xi — China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong — was “destroying the structure of governance”. The professor — a rare government critic in the heavily censored world of Chinese academia — had been put under house arrest a week before being taken into custody, the friend had said.

The US and the EU last week called Xu’s detention a human rights violation, pressing for his release.“It’s good news that Professor Xu has been released, but he should have not been detained in the first place,” said Yaqiu Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

 

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