Internet activist charged with threatening state power in China

An Internet activist missing for several months in northwest China has been charged with inciting the overthrow of state power and is awaiting sentencing, court officials and a US-based rights group said.

Tao Haidong, 45, was tried in the Urumqi People's Intermediate Court on January 8 over opinions posed ont," he said.

Tao was arrested on July 9 last year.

According to an Urumqi newspaper, Tao was accused of posting material on the web from two books he had written predicting China's economy was near collapse, and describing China as the world's largest base of feudalism.

HRIC said the indictment against him claims he was paid 500 dollars by overseas web sites for his articles.

Tao has been jailed before for his writings, spending 14 months in a Reform Thorough Labor camp until his release in January 2001 for editing a book entitled "Imaginings of a New Human race", HRIC said.

He subsequently became active on the Internet.

"The serious charges against Tao Haidong indicate that the Chinese government is determined to continue its suppression of free speech," HRIC President Liu Qing said in a statement.

Tao's arrest follows the detention of two other Interent activists late last year.

Li Yibin, 28, was seized in November in Beijing for publishing an online magazine called "Democracy and Freedom."

His arrest came at the same time as 22-year-old college student and Internet activist Liu Di was detained on the campus of her school, Beijing Normal University, on November 7.

Liu, who went under the Internet name of "Stainless Steel Mouse," urged online activists to oppose an ongoing government crackdown on the web, while posting essays condemning Communist Party propaganda.

In its annual report Tuesday, Human Rights Watch blasted China for its continued repression and censorship.

It documented several cases last year where Chinese authorities charged activists with subversion for using the Internet to promote causes ranging from political change to worker rights.

Amnesty International in November said at least 33 people had been detained or imprisoned in China for using the Internet to peacefully express views or share information.