Update | Chinese police detain internet celebrity, journalist in new crackdown

Beijing police detained an outspoken internet celebrity as well as a journalist who has accused a senior government official of dereliction of duty, raising concerns that an increasingly tough crackdown against liberal opinion is taking place.

Charles Xue Biqun, a venture capitalist better known by his alias Xu Manzi, was held on Friday along with a young woman for suspected involvement in prostitution, Beijing police said via their official weibo social media account yesterday.

It also announced yesterday that Liu Hu, an investigative reporter with the Guangzhou-based newspaper , was placed under police custody on Saturday for fabricating and spreading rumours, a catch-all charge used to cover acts disrupting social order.

Xue, 60, was caught patronising an alleged prostitute in a residential compound in Beijing after police received a tip from residents, another weibo post said.

With a following of more than 12 million "fans" on the most influential microblogging service, Xue was named in official newspapers as having links with an "online rumour-monger" arrested for "stirring trouble" and operating an illegal business two days before his detention.

The reported that Xue had invested in a company where one of the suspected "rumour-mongers", Qin Zhihui, briefly worked. Xue has since denied having any links with Qin.