Chinese authorities detained a law professor who published essays criticising President Xi Jinping over the coronavirus pandemic and accusing him of ruling “tyrannically”, AFP reported.

Xu Zhangrun, a rare outspoken critic of the government in China's heavily censored academia, was taken from his home in suburban Beijing by more than 20 people, one of his friends said on condition of anonymity.

Xu published an essay in February blaming the culture of deception and censorship fostered by Xi for the spread of the coronavirus in China.

China's “leader system is itself destroying the structure of governance”, Xu wrote in the essay that appeared on overseas websites, adding the chaos in the virus epicentre of Hubei province reflected systemic problems in the Chinese state.