海角大神

Chinese civic rights activists vowed today to continue their fight for the rule of law, even as one of their best known leaders went on trial.

Xu Zhiyong, a prominent legal scholar, faces a maximum sentence of five years鈥� imprisonment on charges of 鈥済athering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.鈥� The authorities accuse him of being the ringleader of a series of small demonstrations last year calling on government officials to declare their wealth.

Five participants in those demonstrations are due to go on trial separately later this week.

鈥淚f they are jailed, other people will take their place,鈥� says Li Fangping, a human rights lawyer. 鈥淭he authorities cannot stop this sort of thing.鈥�

鈥淭his crackdown is designed to scare other people away from these activities,鈥� adds Zhang Shihe, an activist colleague of Dr. Xu鈥檚. 鈥淏ut it won鈥檛 work.鈥�

In an unusually forthright statement, the US embassy in Beijing condemned Mr. Xu鈥檚 trial as 鈥渞etribution for his public campaign to expose official corruption.鈥� It said his prosecution was 鈥減art of a pattern of arrests and detentions鈥� of citizens 鈥渨ho peacefully challenge official Chinese policies.鈥�

The public was barred from the courtroom, as were foreign diplomats. Most reporters were prevented by the police from approaching the courthouse, and some who got close were prevented from filming and roughed up.聽

Xu, a widely respected veteran of civic rights campaigns, founded the New Citizens鈥� Movement in 2012, urging his fellow citizens in an open letter posted on the Internet to exercise their rights in pursuit of 鈥渁 free, democratic China with the rule of law.鈥�

He became the guiding light of the loosely organized movement, attracting members from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, from professionals and businessmen to dissidents and petitioners. The group has drawn public attention by leading a campaign to give equal educational opportunities to the children of China鈥檚 120 million migrant workers and by demanding that officials declare their wealth.

That might seem to jibe with President Xi Jinping鈥檚 own anticorruption drive, which has netted a number of senior officials recently. But the government clearly wants to run its campaign on its own terms at its own speed.

Indeed, many activists see the anticorruption efforts and the crackdown on civic groups as two aspects of the same policy, designed to strengthen the authority of Mr. Xi, and that of the ruling Communist party鈥檚 central organs.

Who was China targeting in 2013? Read a briefing here.

Five citizens who briefly unfurled banners on a Beijing street early last year urging officials to declare their wealth, and who then posted photographs of the event on the Internet, are due to be tried on Thursday and Friday. Dozens of activists said to be linked to the New Citizens鈥� Movement have been detained, arrested, or disappeared in recent months, according to China Human Rights Defenders, a rights watchdog.

鈥淎ny organized activity is seen as a threat by the authorities,鈥� says Mr. Li, the human rights lawyer. 鈥淭hree or four people protesting on the street is considered a symptom of a trend that must be nipped in the bud.鈥�

In the absence of its leader, jailed since last July, the New Citizens鈥� Movement continues to exist, and its loosely connected members continue their activities, such as posting open letters and essays about civil society on the Internet, and holding their trademark dinner meetings to discuss ways of promoting civic rights.

鈥淭he main goal of the movement is to convey the concept of citizenship to ordinary people,鈥� says Xu鈥檚 colleague Mr. Zhang. 鈥淭hese trials will mean more people will hear about civil society, learn more about what it means, and ask themselves why the authorities are so afraid of it.鈥�