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BBC Chinese
Xu Zhangrun was arrested on Monday
A professor who criticized China’s handling of the coronavirus crisis was detained by authorities.
Xu Zhangrun, who has been under house arrest, was removed from his Beijing home on Monday, friends said.
The law professor has previously spoken out against the Mao-style personality cult that has returned under current Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Police have made no public comment on the arrest, and it is unclear what charges Mr. Xu faces.
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A friend told the AFP news agency that Mr. Xu’s wife had received a call saying that he was accused of soliciting prostitution while in Chengdu City with other liberal academics.
The friend dismissed the accusation as “ridiculous”.
Freedom of expression is strictly controlled in China, and those who speak out against the authorities risk being arrested and convicted.
‘Mentally prepared’
Friends say that up to 20 people turned up at Mr. Xu’s house early in the morning, confiscating his computer and papers.
Geng Xiaonan, a friend of the professor, told the New York Times that he was “mentally prepared to be taken away.”
“He kept a bag of clothes and a toothbrush hanging on his front door so he was ready for this,” he said.
A BBC correspondent in Beijing says Xu has been following an increasingly dangerous path.
He had been banned from teaching at Tsinghua University, one of the country’s leading institutions, after he spoke out against removing the limits of the presidential term, allowing Xi to remain in office for life.
He was placed under house arrest earlier this year after publishing an article criticizing how President Xi and the government had handled the coronavirus outbreak. He suggested that it might be the last one he wrote.
