Communist Party critic Xu Zhangrun has called for the release of a publisher detained after she voiced her support for the dissident scholar, saying the Chinese authorities' attempts to silence dissent would only stoke more discontent.

Xu, who is himself under close supervision of the authorities, urged the Communist Party to “stop doing evil things and free [Geng] Xiaonan,” in an article entitled “A letter to a tyranny concerning a woman in prison.”

Geng and her husband Qin Zhen, who run Ruyia Books, were arrested in Beijing on Wednesday for allegedly “running an illicit business.” Geng had earlier this year voiced support for Xu when the former Tsinghua University law professor was detained by authorities following a series of essays he wrote that were critical of the Communist Party.

The continual purging of dissidents will only provoke discontent and create factions, Xu said in the article. With China now facing greater international criticism, those in power should reflect instead on their own mistakes and focus on improving people’s livelihoods, Xu said.

Beside Xu, Cai Xia, a retired professor from the top school for communist party members, also threw her support behind Geng. Cai and Xu both likened Geng to a Decembrist, a group of Russian army officers who mounted a doomed rebellion against Czar Nicolas I in 1825. Although the Decembrists failed and were forced into exile or executed, the revolt is widely seen as the beginning of movement toward liberalism and the end of Russian autocracy.

An increasing number of the offspring of former state leaders or high-ranking cadres have voiced their dissatisfaction over the party’s leadership because they feel President Xi Jinping’s administration is destroying their ancestors' legacy, said Johnny Lau, a veteran political commentator on China.

They feel they must speak up now because they don’t want to see Xi secure an indefinite term of leadership in 2022, Lau said. Despite growing more vocal, they remain far from achieving the cohesion needed before they can make any substantive challenge, he said — even a doomed one such as the Decembrist Uprising.

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