Radio Free Asia reported yesterday that Chinese authorities have now arrested a Chinese human rights lawyer on criminal charges after he assisted Protestant churches in resisting an urban "improvement" campaign that required removal of their roof-top crosses:
Zhang Kai's initial period of detention in an unknown location under "residential surveillance" reached the end of its six-month limit last week, and the lawyer was immediately held instead under criminal detention on suspicion of "disturbing public order" and "endangering state secrets," a fellow lawyer told RFA....
Chinese media aired footage of Zhang last Friday "confessing" to the charges, and accused U.S.-based Christian rights group ChinaAid of supporting him.
The confession appears to have been coerced.
