Shanghai law scholar Zhang Xuezhong launched an online referendum on social media Twitter last Tuesday (16) on “National Constitution, Peaceful Transition,” and was released three days later after being taken away by authorities for 26 hours. The situation is similar to the treatment he received last year after he released an open letter promoting constitutional reform in China before the “two sessions” of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. The difference is that his referendum proposal on Twitter is no longer available, and his account only reads “This tweet cannot be viewed.
A number of Chinese WeChat groups and his friends sent out messages yesterday (20), saying that Zhang Xuezhong was taken away by the authorities at about 11 a.m. the day before (19), and has been out of touch since then, and his phone number is not available. Until about 1 p.m. yesterday, Zhang’s friends revealed that Zhang Xuezhong had just been released, and the details of his being taken away were unknown for the Time being. The Twitter account of Zhang has not been updated after the 19th. He still tweeted in English on the 19th, saying that human rights are a universal value that everyone is born to enjoy.
Zhang Xuezhong, formerly an associate professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, tweeted on the 16th with a picture, saying that “national constitutionalism and peaceful transition” is both a path and vision for China’s political modernization and a slogan to mobilize public support and promote political change, and is most likely to become a consensus among different sectors. He expected the post to get more than 10,000 retweets within a week, but when reporters accessed the Twitter account early today, the post had disappeared, saying it was “unavailable for viewing”.
On the eve of the National People’s Congress in May last year, Zhang Xuezhong published an open letter to the National People’s Congress titled “Start the national constitution-making process as early as possible and strive to achieve peaceful political transformation”, saying that China’s current constitution is a “pseudo-constitution” and that China’s deputies to the National People’s Congress are not “proper representatives of the Chinese people, nor do they believe that the National People’s Congress is a proper representative of the Chinese people. The National People’s Congress is not “a legitimate representative of the Chinese people, nor do we believe that the National People’s Congress is a legitimate representative body. He was then released 24 hours later after being taken away by authorities.
Zhang Xuezhong, 45, a native of Shangrao, Jiangxi, and former associate professor at East China University of Political Science and Law, was dismissed from the university in 2013 and had his license to practice law revoked in 2019 for criticizing China’s political system and human rights.
Recent Comments