Speaking to BBC, Xie Yanyi recounts the months of torture he had to endure under Xi's first five-year term.

Xie is one among the 300 lawyers, legal assistants and activists who faced Beijing's wrath for questioning the Communist Party's tactics.

The crackdown on such professionals began in mid 2015 as Xi's 'war on law' began to gather pace in China.

"I was kept alone in a small room and saw no daylight for half a year. I had nothing to read, nothing to do but to sit on that low stool," the lawyer recalls, ignoring the prohibitions.

He says that he was subjected to all kinds of physical punishment, but, found the solitary confinement to be the hardest to bear.

"People could go mad in that situation. I was isolated from the world. This is torture - the isolation is more painful than being beaten," Xie tells BBC.

Two years have passed since the crackdown started and yet some still await sentences, while others have been sentenced to long jail terms.

One among the 300 have completely disappeared into thin air.

Xi's the man...silencing critics via unlawful ways

The 19th Communist Party Congress that ended earlier this week was a main draw in the political sphere across eastern Asia.

But even before it began, roads in the Chinese capital were draped in the party's slogan, one among which read 'Xi's the man'.

Xi, the most powerful man in China at the moment, has a habit of silencing his critics, at times by unlawful means, says critics.

According to experts, China wasn't always this hostile towards critics.

Earlier, Xie had dissented against ministers and raised his voices against policies, but things under Xi has taken a turn for the worse, critics feel.

Anything and everything that tries to pin down the government, be it a valid argument or one conceived in haste, is projected as fake news by the Chinese officials.

Beijing has a no-nonsense stance as far as criticism is concerned.

Even with a deluge of criticism coming its way from international platforms, China remained apathetic towards Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo's death, who expired in July at the age of 61, at a hospital in his home country.

The communist nation had also shunned coverage of the death, with little or no note being carried on the newspapers.

Moreover, It asked other countries to maintain dignity and not meddle with their 'internal affairs' as the latter were in no position to 'pass improper judgements'.

Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent critics, was locked up and had been serving a 11-year old prison term (in four terms, the latest of which was from 2009) for subversion.

He was disallowed from travelling abroad for treatment and was later granted medical parole on Jun 26, earlier this year, after doctors diagnosed him with terminal liver cancer.

The Nobel committee, who bestowed upon him the Peace Prize in 2010, while in prison, said that China was 'heavily responsible' for Xiaobo's death.

Later, officials arranged a burial at sea for him, thus raising the question if the nation equated him with global designated terrorist Osama bin Laden, who too was dealt a similar treatment after his death.

Pooh gets the axe, scissored from Chinese social media

Earlier this year in the month of July, it was reported that Chinese media banned cartoon character Winnie the Pooh.

Later, the reason was revealed and it managed to raise eye brows.

Pooh had a lookalike in Xi and vice-versa.

The similarity was too much to handle for Beijing, and it decided to censor it from social media.

A detailed study revealed that Xi was trolled with Pooh images on internet, irking the former.

Similarly, a Tencent chatbot, Baby Q, that renegaded against the Communist party, was taken down almost immediately.

According to screenshots shared online, when one user posted "Long live the Communist Party", Baby Q replied, "Do you think that such a corrupt and incompetent political party can live for long?"

Another user posted that when the bot was asked if it loves the ruling party, the renegading Baby Q said "No".

Users have also suggested the the bot is not a supporter of One China policy and has mocked anyone who called themselves a patriot.