China detains scholar who slammed country’s coronavirus response

A Chinese scholar has been detained by the authorities after writing an open letter to the country’s legislature ripping the government’s handling of th🅰e coronavirus🐻 pandemic and calling for freedom of speech.

Zhang Xuezhong was removed from his Shanghai home on Sunday night, , citing multiple sources. Zhang’s letter, posted on WeChat on Saturday and addressed to the National People’s Congress, was circulated online as the Chinese Communist Party prepares to convene cr🙈ucial parliamentary sessions in less than two weeks’ time.

“He was taken away on☂ Sunday night. Three police cars came to his house,” Wen Kejian, a political analyst and a close friend of Zhang, told the website.

Another of Zhang’s pals ꧟also confirmed that Zhang had been taken.

“He is mentally prepar💦ed aft♚er his open letter,” the friend said.

Zhang, 43, wrote alongside his attached letter: “The best way to fight for freedom of expression is for everyone to speak as if we already have freedo💃m of speech.”

C🐼alls from the Morning Post to the Shanghai cops went unans♛wered.

Zhang – a well-known critic of China’s political and legal system – said in the letter that in the absence of a modern꧑ constitution, China’s communist governance was backward, and “the outbreak and spread of the Cꦯovid-19 epidemic is a good illustration of the problem.”

Since first being reported in Wuhan in late December, the coronavirus🐼 has infected over 4.1 million people globally, killing more than 282,000.

There were earlier calls for freedom of speech in February following the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, who ha♑d alerted colleagues in December about the pneumonia-like illness in Wuhan, and who was one of eight people slammed by the communist country’s police for “spreading rumors.”

Li, who was required to sign a document vowing he would “keep in line in th♔ought and action” with the Communist Party, later died from the coronavirus.

Zhang said in his letter: “Twenty-two days before the [lockdown to contain t🔯he outbreak] in the city, Wuhan was still inv꧙estigating and punishing citizens who had disclosed the epidemic, including Dr Li Wenliang … showing how tight and arbitrary the government’s suppression of society is.”

China has dismissed claims from President Trump and others that it mishandled the outbreak, and a♋rgued against a🥂ccusations that it had withheld information and allowed the outbreak to escalate.

Zhang argued that China did share information with the US begin🔴ning in early January — but didn’t share that information with its own citizens.

“Since January 3, 2020, the foreign ministry had been regularly notifying the US government about the e☂pidemic, but the disease control department was not notifying the people of [China] at the same time. Such an irresponsible attitude towards their people’s safe𒀰ty is rare,” Zhang wrote.