#China detains law professor who criticized President Xi Jinping

Chinese police on Monday detained a prominent law professor and political dissident who criticized President Xi Jinping.

Xu Zhangrun of Tsinghua University was taken by authorities from his Beijing home, friends told Bloomberg News and the New York Times. Geng Xiaonan, a friend who spoke with Xu’s wife, said he was accused of visiting prostitutes.

Xu was placed under investigation last year and was suspended from his job after he published a collection of 10 essays that condemned the evolution of China’s Communist-led government under Xi as authoritarian and regressive.

The arrest follows recent steps by Xi to consolidate power and suppress dissent amid the coronavirus pandemic and Hong Kong autonomy protests.

According to a new report, Xi recently established a special working group on “political security” as part of a coronavirus-dissent focused task force. The group reportedly focuses on threats to the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership.

In a separate move, China’s government last week passed a new law restricting freedom of expression in Hong Kong, all but ending the territory’s special political status and resulting in hundreds of arrests, including for advocating Hong Kong independence.

Tensions are mounting between the US and China over the pandemic and human rights.

President Trump accuses the Chinese Communist Party of lying about the virus, leaving the world unprepared for the respiratory bug that sickened nearly 3 million Americans, killed about 130,000 and left tens of millions unemployed.

Trump last month signed a law authorizing sanctions against Chinese officials who censor and mistreat ethnic Uyghurs and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Monday that Trump is preparing an executive order “dealing with China and what we need to do there in terms of resetting that balance.”