China releases professor who criticised Xi

A Beijing law professor who has been an outspoken critic of China's President Xi Jinping and the ruling Communist Party was released yesterday after six days of detention, his friends said.

Xu Zhangrun, a constitutional law professor at the prestigious Tsinghua University, returned home yesterday 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 yesterday.

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.