Professor Xu Zhangrun of Tsinghua University Law School, a prominent critic of the personality cult surrounding Xi Jinping and the tightening of censorship, was released after being detained by the Chinese authorities.
A reform-minded scholar warned that a country without freedom of expression was a fascist state and described how Chinese academics had stopped writing because every word could be treated as evidence of a crime.

July 20, 2020
This chapter was originally published on July 20, 2020.
It introduced a report from Beijing by Sankei Shimbun correspondent Yoshiaki Nishimi.
Professor Xu Zhangrun of Tsinghua University Law School was a Chinese intellectual who had openly opposed the personality cult surrounding President Xi Jinping, the tightening of controls over speech, and the authoritarian rule of the Xi leadership.
On July 6, 2020, the Chinese authorities detained Professor Xu on suspicion of purchasing sexual services.
After being subjected to administrative detention, he returned to his home in Beijing on July 12.
A reform-minded scholar quoted in the article argued that the real reason for the detention was the impact Professor Xu’s writings had exerted upon the existing political order.
He criticized the authorities for placing the protection of the Communist Party and the regime above the interests of the nation, ordinary citizens, and individuals.
The scholar also said that he himself was warned by university authorities once or twice a year.
Because every word he wrote could be treated as “evidence of a crime,” he had stopped writing altogether.
He further recalled that, twenty years earlier, he had attended private study meetings about social issues approximately twice a week.
Such meetings, he said, were no longer held because of pressure from the authorities.
The article therefore concerns more than the detention of one professor.
It shows how academic freedom, freedom of expression, and the private spaces in which citizens discuss society had been steadily constricted under Chinese Communist Party rule.
The following is a faithful English translation of the Japanese article originally published on July 20, 2020.
Faithful English Translation
July 20, 2020
He lamented the contraction of the space for free expression under pressure from the authorities, saying, “Twenty years ago, I used to attend private study meetings about social problems approximately twice a week, but today they are no longer held at all.”
The following is from an article published recently in the Sankei Shimbun under the headline, “Professor Who Criticized Xi Leadership Released: Was the Detention a Warning? Reformists React.”
Beijing—Yoshiaki Nishimi
It has emerged that Professor Xu Zhangrun of Tsinghua University Law School, who was detained by the Chinese authorities on the sixth of this month, was released on the twelfth and returned to his home in Beijing.
A person familiar with the matter disclosed the information.
Xu is an intellectual who has stood at the forefront of opposition to the personality cult surrounding Chinese President Xi Jinping and the strengthening of controls over speech, while criticizing the authoritarian politics of the Xi leadership.
His detention is believed to have been intended as a “warning.”
A reform-minded scholar in Beijing expressed growing concern, saying, “A country in which freedom of expression is not recognized is a fascist state.”
According to a person familiar with the matter, public security authorities from Sichuan Province detained Xu at his home in Beijing on the sixth on suspicion of purchasing sexual services.
After a period of administrative detention, Xu reportedly returned to his home on the morning of the twelfth.
Before Xu’s release, a male professor in his fifties who researches society and economics at a Beijing university spoke to the Sankei Shimbun.
He analyzed the reason for the detention as “the impact Xu’s arguments had upon the existing order.”
He criticized the authorities, saying, “Protecting the Communist Party and the regime takes absolute priority, while the interests of the nation, ordinary people, and individuals come second.”
In February, Xu criticized online the Xi leadership’s response to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
At the end of June, he had also just published a book in the United States.
The professor quoted above stated, “Both matters fell within the scope of Xu’s academic research.
If freedom of expression and academic freedom are denied and such activity is treated as a crime, that is fascism.”
The professor himself had been “warned by university authorities once or twice a year.”
He said that he had stopped writing anything because “every single word could be treated as ‘evidence of a crime.’”
He further lamented the contraction of the space for free expression under pressure from the authorities, saying, “Twenty years ago, I used to attend private study meetings about social problems approximately twice a week, but today they are no longer held at all.”