‘This may be the last piece I write’: prominent Xi critic has internet cut after house arrest
Exclusive: professor who published stinging criticism of Chinese president was confined to home by guards and barred from social media
The Chinese professor Xu Zhangrun, who published a rare public critique of President Xi Jinping over China’s coronavirus crisis, was placed under house arrest for days, barred from social media and is now cut off from the internet, his friends have told the Guardian.
Xu’s passionate attack on the government’s system of controls and censorship, Viral Alarm: When Fury Overcomes Fear, was published this month – a rare, bold expression of dissent from the liberal camp under Xi’s rule.
A friend of Xu’s who spoke on Sunday on
