Chinese dissident arrested for allegedly holding state secrets

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese dissident who wrote politically sensitive articles including some criticizing the government's handling of a devastating earthquake was formally arrested Friday on charges of allegedly possessing state secrets, a human rights group said. Prosecutors in the southwestern city of Chengdu approved the arrest and charges against Huang Qi, founder of the human rights website 64Tianwang, said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. The move comes as the government is tightening a clampdown on potentially embarrassing protests or complaints before the Beijing Olympics, which begin in less than a month. There's been "no let up in the repression of rights activists on the eve of the games' opening," Bequelin said. Possession of state secrets is an ill-defined term often used to... [read full story]