China Detains Outspoken Party Ideologue Who Called For Removal of President Xi
Authorities in the southwestern province of Sichuan have detained a former professor at a ruling Chinese Communist Party school after he called for President Xi Jinping's replacement. Zi Su was taken away from his home in Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu on April 28 after he posted an open letter online calling on Xi to step down as head of the party in favor of Hu Deping, son of late ousted premier Hu Yaobang, whose death in 1989 sparked the Tiananmen Square democracy movement.
"Xi Jinping was elected general secretary ... in 2012 and has served for five years," Zi's letter said. "His achievements ... have been to punish a number of corrupt officials, but his faults have been to imitate [late supreme leader] Mao Zedong with a personality cult around him and a focus on centralization of power."
