Xu was taken away by unidentified men on April 27 after finishing an interview with a TV station in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. The men, who were not wearing uniforms and who produced no official documentation, led him away after he left the TV station.

According to reports, he is currently being confined in a hospital affiliated to the Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp.

His continued confinement has captured the attention of critics.

"Police have the right to take away Xu if Xu was a suspect but, as a man with a mental illness, which is what the hospital says he is, he should only be sent back to hospital by doctors or his family," said Gu Haowei, a Guangdong-based lawyer.

Cases in which law enforcement officers have abused their power and committed a healthy person to a mental health facility have made the headlines in recent years.

Xu Lindong, a farmer from Henan province, was confined to a mental health facility for almost seven years after he complained to the central government between 1997 and 2003 on behalf of a friend with disabilities, whose land had been occupied by a third party.