Chinese authorities have detained an 81-year-old journalist with a failing memory who recently criticized heavy censorship that he said is doing great damage to China's media.

Tie Liu, a writer and journalist who spent decades in work camps as a young man, had thought he was too old to draw the attention of authorities. He had for decades offered unvarnished opinions of the Chinese state, and recently directed withering criticism at Liu Yunshan, the elite politician and propaganda czar. In August, Mr. Tie released an online article accusing Mr. Liu of further sullying China's already obedient state press and making "the media lose its credibility in China."

But at 1 a.m. on Sunday, his phone rang. Soon after, one of Beijing's highest-ranking police officials was in his house, presenting him with a summons paper that accused him of "causing a disturbance."

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In the midst of a broad effort led by Chinese President Xi Jinping to stifle critical expression on the Internet, in churches and in the courts, even an octogenarian – one who had recently agreed with his wife he would lay down the verbal hatchet at the end of this year – is a target in China today.

Not long after police arrived, he was escorted from the house with a suit jacket over his pyjamas to protect against the cold "in the deep of night," his wife, Ren Hengfang, said. Less than 24 hours later, after also arresting his domestic helper and publishing assistant, the police were back, with papers from cybersecurity police confirming he had been formally detained. He is being held at the Beijing municipal detention house.

The notice may have set a kind of grim record for China.

"He might be the oldest suspect in China on charges of creating a disturbance," said Liu Xiaoyuan, a Chinese human-rights lawyer, on Twitter.

It also marks a return into state hands, a grimly familiar place for Mr. Tie, whose real name is Huang Zerong – although he is best known by his pen name.

In the mid-1950s, in one of Mao Zedong's uglier social engineering efforts, Chinese people were encouraged to vent their problems with the Communist Party. The so-called Hundred Flowers Campaign brought fourth an outpouring of criticism. Mr. Tie contributed "an article about civil servants. It was published in my newspaper and nobody thought much about it," he said in a 2010 interview with Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Then, Mao changed course, labelled the critics "rightists" and oversaw a massive purge. "All of a sudden, I was sent to a work camp for 23 years," Mr. Tie told RNW.

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When he finally emerged from a detention where he was often left underfed, he had a powerful hunger to expose the horrors of the Mao regime. He spent years documenting personal stories of people who lived through that time. China, which decades later still heavily censors discussion of the so-called "anti-rightist movement," did not want those stories told.

Some of these stories are now with police. Along with four laptops, an iPad and his mobile phone, officers on Sunday seized from Mr. Tie letters, self-published journals and about 100 books, said Ms. Ren, his wife. "It's mostly collecting stories of people who suffered in the old years," she said. Much of that work was a self-funded, self-published labour fuelled by a righteous anger that neither age nor illness had extinguished.

Mr. Tie suffers from high-blood pressure and a heart condition. Police did not allow him to take his medication with him. Ms. Ren, however, said: "It's useless to be worried about him. These are not our decisions."

His detention is particularly poignant for her, because he had recently said he would lower his verbal cannons.

"I told him, 'You have done what you can.' This task is not something that can be finished by one person.' I suggested he quit. He actually agreed. We planned to finish things up by the end of this year," Ms. Ren said.

She believes he was detained after writing a harsh online note about Mr. Liu, the propaganda czar. Mr. Tie accused him of deliberately concealing some of the reform comments made by Mr. Xi, the President. If the Communist Party "continues to allow people like Liu Yunshan to mess around, it will only accelerate its own downfall," Mr. Tie wrote.

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His detention offers some puzzling elements: Mr. Tie was not critical of the Chinese President. And his disparaging of Chinese media is far from new. In 2010, he was among the signatories to a blunt public demand for an end to all media censorship.

But China is now mounting a broad effort to do away with what it considers unfavourable elements, a campaign so effective that it may not be easy to defend Mr. Tie in court. The stakes of standing up against Beijing continue to rise.

"It's very difficult to find a proper lawyer for his case," Ms. Ren said. "We need someone who is brave enough."