China charges Xi critic with 'subversion', say activists

An outspoken Chinese rights activist who called for President Xi Jinping to step down over the coronavirus outbreak has been charged with "inciting state subversion", rights activists said Monday.

Xu Zhiyong has been detained since February 15, after publishing a series of blogposts criticising the Communist Party's response to the coronavirus outbreak that has now killed more than 3,100 people in the country.

Police at Dongxiaokou station in Beijing told Xu's sister on Saturday that he had been moved to "residential surveillance in a designated location", Hua Ze, a human rights activist in close contact with Xu's relatives, told AFP.

This is a form of extrajudicial detention lasting up to six months where detainees are denied access to lawyers and relatives, and are vulnerable to torture and coercion, according to activists.

Hu Jia, a veteran Chinese rights activist, said police threatened Xu's sister.

Police told her "she was not allowed to visit him due to outbreak prevention and control measures, and would not be allowed to visit even after the outbreak subsided", Hu said.

"We don't know where he is being detained or which exact department is handling his case, which makes it hard to give him legal assistance."