Xu Zhangrun, a constitutional?law scholar at Tsinghua University, has been detained by Chinese authorities, according to reports.

Media sources cited online posts and Professor Xu¡¯s friends, who said that more than a dozen police officers had removed the outspoken critic from his home, along with his computer and papers.??

Tsinghua did not respond to queries about?Professor Xu¡¯s?current standing at the institution, when asked most?recently or in the spring,?when he was suspended?and put under investigation.?

Professor Xu has been in the authorities¡¯ crosshairs since 2018-2019, when he continued publishing?essays critical of the government after he had been advised to stop. His commentary grew more pointed after Covid-19 began to spread.?

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In February, an essay by Professor Xu titled ¡°Angry People are no Longer Afraid¡±?appeared in the China Digital Times, a website founded by Xiao Qiang, a research scientist?at the University of California, Berkeley. An English version of the essay, ¡°Viral Alarm: When Fury Overcomes Fear¡±, was?, translated by Geremie Barm¨¦.

According to Professor?Barm¨¦¡¯s introduction to that essay, Professor Xu ¡°remained defiant¡± despite being removed from teaching duties in 2019.?

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Professor Xu?was also one of the signatories of?an open letter in February?calling on China to honour Li Wenliang ,?the late whistleblower physician who had warned of a?mysterious Sars-like disease but was not heeded by the authorities. Soon after,?Professor Xu?was?placed under house arrest and suspended by Tsinghua.??

A translation of Professor Xu¡¯s works,?Six Chapters from the 2018 Year of the Dog,?was to be published by a university press in Hong Kong earlier this year, but appears to?have been delayed.

joyce.lau@timeshighereducation.com?