China has arrested another dissident on subversion charges, the third in a deepening security crackdown, his family said yesterday, while a Chinese-Australian writer who had disappeared in China contacted friends and said he was sick.
Chen Wei (陳衛), 42, a dogged critic of China’s one-party system who lives in Sichuan Province, was arrested on charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” his wife, Wang Xiaoyan (王曉燕), said by telephone from the region.
“I received the notice yesterday afternoon, but I haven’t had any other news about him, haven’t been allowed to see him,” she said.
She did not know the precise reasons for the charge.
Chen’s arrest adds to evidence that the Chinese Communist Party is determined to snuff out any risks of challenges to its power as it approaches a leadership succession late next year, when President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) retires.
In recent days, two other dissidents from Sichuan, Ran Yunfei (冉雲飛) and Ding Mao (丁矛), were arrested for “inciting subversion,” a charge often used to punish critics of the Party.
Last week, another dissident, Liu Xianbin (劉賢斌), was jailed for 10 years on the same charge. And Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), Nobel Peace Prize winner, is serving an 11-year prison term.
Chen’s formal arrest makes it more likely that he could eventually stand trial. China’s party--controlled courts rarely find in favor of defendants.
Chen was detained over a month ago, when police rounded up dozens of dissidents in response to online calls for rallies inspired by anti-authoritarian uprisings across the Middle East.
Meanwhile, a Chinese-born Australian writer, Yang Hengjun (楊恆鈞), who had been missing in China since Sunday, contacted friends who had feared he was detained in the crackdown. However, it was unclear whether he was free in his movements.
“He called me to say that he’s been sick in hospital and then coughed a couple of times. It’s impossible for me to say whether Yang was really in hospital,” said Wu Jiaxiang, a former government official. “I can only tell you what he told me ... But the fact that he can contact the outside world suggests his situation probably isn’t as serious as other cases.”
Yang did not answer calls to his telephone.
Messages on China’s most popular micro-blogging site, Sina.com’s “Weibo,” also said Yang had called friends to say he was “in hospital.”
China is Australia’s biggest trade partner and if Yang does not reappear, the case could cloud a planned visit to Beijing next month by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Amnesty International earlier described Yang’s disappearance as “extremely worrying” and said it feared Yang could be another target of the security drive.
“He joins a long list of peaceful reformists who have gone missing or been arrested in China in the last month,” Catherine Baber of Amnesty International said in an e-mailed statement.
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