Prominent journalist accused of leaking state secrets as dissenters are rounded up ahead of Tiananmen anniversary

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The prominent Chinese journalist Gao Yu has been "criminally detained" – a few weeks ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown – for allegedly leaking state secrets to a foreign news site, Chinese state media has announced.



The detention of the outspoken 70-year-old journalist was just one of several detentions of government critics over the previous days ahead of the politically sensitive 4 June anniversary.



The official news agency Xinhua said the journalist was detained on 24 April, with authorities seizing evidence at her Beijing home. Gao was a well-known government critic who was imprisoned after the 1989 crackdown and had been reported missing since 26 April. The report said Gao had made confessions.

Xinhua also reported that Gao was given a six-year prison sentence in 1993 for leaking state secrets.



On Tuesday Chinese authorities detained well-known rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang and several other people in an apparent bid to deter activists from marking the anniversary of the military suppression of pro-democracy protesters. Pu's associate Qu Zhenhong said the lawyer was taken away on Tuesday morning.



Two of Pu's close friends, the Beijing activist Hu Jia and the Shanghai lawyer Si Weijiang, said the detention was likely the authorities' retaliation against Pu for attending a seminar in Beijing on Saturday to discuss the Tiananmen Square crackdown.



Several other people who attended the seminar, including Beijing-based scholars Hao Jian and Xu Youyu and blogger and free speech activist Liu Di, were similarly detained on Tuesday, Hu said, citing their family members.