A liberal law professor at Tsinghua University who openly criticised Chinese President Xi Jinping has been suspended and placed under investigation by the university, according to one of his colleagues and several academics familiar with the situation.
Xu Zhangrun, 56, was suspended this month after he wrote several articles criticising Beijing over political and social issues, his colleague Guo Yuhua, a sociology professor at the university, told the South China Morning Post.
In one opinion piece last year, Xu questioned the personality cult surrounding Xi and the decision by the National People’s Congress to scrap the term limit on the Chinese presidency. The article, and others written by Xu critical of the president, were widely circulated online.