Chinese scholar detained for calling China’s constitution ‘fake’ among others

DHARAMSALA, 12 May: An outspoke Chinese constitutional scholar has been detained by authorities in China for denouncing China’s constitution as fake and urging politicians to revolt.

Human rights lawyer Zhang Xuezhong was detained overnight after he publicized a letter to the regime’s rubber-stamp legislature that criticised the one-party political system and proposed a transition toward a genuine democratic government, reports the Epoch Times.

China’s constitution is “a fake constitution,” because it is “just a manual used by the ruling party to organize and run its regime,” the lawyer has said in the letter addressed to deputies of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s  rubber-stamp legislature

“Because China has not built a modern political system in accordance with a genuine constitution, its social governance remains extremely backward,” he has stated in the letter. 

Zhang, 43, was taken from his Shanghai home by police, the report said citing Chinese dissident Mo Zhixu.

He was reportedly whisked away from his home after officers arrived at Zhang’s house in three police cars. 

Zang has further blamed the CCP’s (Chinese Communist Party) arbitrary suppression and strict control over society for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in his letter and added that it had “almost completely destroyed the organizing and self-help capacity of the Chinese society.”

China’s rubber-stamp legislature will meet on 22 May in Beijing for its postponed annual plenary session.

It was previously scheduled to be held in March but had been delayed by the virus outbreak.

Zang, however, has said that “the outbreak and spread of the epidemic have been a good indication of the problem.”