Chinese police have detained a prominent leftist supporter of disgraced high-flying politician Bo Xilai who had urged people to protest against Bo’s upcoming trial, underlining government nervousness about the case.
Song Yangbiao, a reporter for the magazine The Time Weekly, was detained on Sunday on charges of “picking quarrels and causing trouble”, according to friends and supporters, apparently after using his Sina Weibo microblog to denounce the trial and call for an uprising to oppose it.
Bo was dramatically sacked last year as Communist Party chief of the southwestern city of Chongqing following lurid accusations of corruption and abuse of power. His trial is expected to begin this month in the eastern city of Jinan.
All members of the Chinese Communist Party should rise up together to oppose the illegal trial in Jinan
While Song’s Weibo account has now been deleted, records kept on freeweibo.com, run by the anti-China censorship site greatfire.org, showed that Song had made his plea on Saturday for people to protest against Bo’s trial.
“All members of the Chinese Communist Party should rise up together to oppose the illegal trial in Jinan,” Song wrote, according to freeweibo.com.
Friend Lu Qi said police informed the family on Monday of Song’s detention, though he was unable to confirm a direct connection with any posts about Bo.
“There’s a lot of speculation about this on the internet at the moment, but I’d personally not seen anything on his Weibo about this,” Lu said.