Update | Chinese writer Tie Liu, 81, held after criticising Communist Party propaganda chief

Beijing police detained liberal writer Huang Zerong on charges of “provoking trouble” on Sunday after he reportedly criticised the Communist Party’s propaganda chief Liu Yunshan online.

The 81-year old writer, better known by the alias Tie Liu, was taken from his home at around 1am, according to Huang’s wife. Police also took books, journals and a computer. 

Huang's wife has since been informed by police that her husband had been criminally detained on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. A second person identified as Huang Jing was also detained. 

Chinese criminal procedure law restricts such detention periods to 30 days if suspects are not subsequently formally arrested and charged with a crime.

The detention for his critical writing comes almost six decades after Huang was first denounced as a “rightist” in Mao Zedong’s crackdown on liberals after the Hundred Flowers campaign, in which the party chairman briefly tolerated criticism but then purged those who spoke up.