CHINESE police have stepped up action against prominent dissidents as Communist leaders gather in Beijing for a plenum at which President Jiang Zemin is expected to reinforce his call for a "spiritual civilisation", or a return to Marxist values.
A leading dissident and literary critic, Mr Liu Xiaobo, was arrested yesterday morning after several plainclothes and uniformed police searched his Beijing home and confiscated documents, a relative said.
Mr Liu's detention comes a day after another dissident, the former student leader, Mr Wang Dan, faced a second jail term on subversion charges. A court in Beijing is expected to deliver a verdict in the coming days, Reuter reported.
The Communist Party plenum is a dry run for the crucial 15th party congress next year, at which President Jiang must consolidate his leadership so as to remain in power for more than a short time after Mr Deng Xiaoping dies.
Although he holds no former title, the ailing Chinese patriarch, who initiated the economic reforms 18 years ago, still occupies a position of high prestige.
Mr Jiang call to renew "spiritual civilisation" and to "talk politics" has been interpreted as a direct attack on the money making culture that Mr Deng created, and an attempt to win support from conservatives in the party and the armed forces.
Also yesterday Beijing told the US to stop interfering in China's internal affairs through news broadcasts on Radio Free Asia, a Washington funded radio station which began transmissions last month. "It is not advantageous to the improvement and development of Sino US relations," said a Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Police who searched Mr Liu's home "turned the whole place upside down" a relative was quoted as saying. They removed books photographs and articles by him.
Mr Liu became prominent during the 1989 student led pro-democracy movement that was crushed by the military. He was held for seven months in 1995 for organising petitions calling for more democracy. In recent months, he sent open letters demanding press freedom and talks with the Dalai Lama on Tibet.
On September 30th, Mr Uu and a pro-democracy activist, Mr Wang Xizhe, issued a statement urging China's Communist authorities to honour a promise in 1945 of religious, political and press freedom. They demanded that President Jiang be impeached for violating the constitution by saying the People's Liberation Army was under the "absolute leadership" of the parts instead of the state.