China detains Transition Institute co-founder Guo Yushan on troublemaking charges

A Chinese scholar and rights advocate who founded an influential non-governmental think tank has been detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles, his lawyer said Sunday.

Guo Yushan is the latest of dozens of people who have been detained at a time when Hong Kong protesters are demanding universal suffrage in elections for the top official of the semiautonomous territory.

Earlier this month, Beijing detained the dissident poet Wang Zang and seven other people ahead of a poetry reading planned in Beijing to support the Hong Kong protesters.

At least 37 people in mainland China have been held for supporting the protesters, including posting pictures and messages online showing solidarity and planning to travel to Hong Kong to join them, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Another 60 have been called in by police for questioning.

Most have been detained on the suspicion of provoking troubles — a vague charge that critics say has been increasingly used to suppress dissidents, activists and outspoken critics of the government as Beijing tries to avoid speech or state subversion charges that are more likely to draw international condemnation.

It is unclear if Guo’s detention is directly related to the Hong Kong protests, as Guo was not known to have made any public comments in support of the pro-democracy movement.