Of all the slimeball tactics employed by China’s secret police, this one is the most despicable: When a whistleblower wins too much attention, concoct some crime and throw them in jail for committing it. (We’ve all read about the reporters for Southern Metropolitan News who were charged with corruption days after exposing atrocious government scandal like the SARS cover-up.) And now, here they go again.

China has detained two of the nation’s top human rights advocates shortly before a blind rights activist was due to stand trial on Friday, marking what observers said may be a concerted crackdown on activists.

Xu Zhiyong, a law academic from Beijing, was held by police in eastern China’s Shandong province on Thursday, where he was preparing to defend activist Chen Guangcheng against charges of disrupting traffic and destroying property during a protest there in February, according to other lawyers defending Chen. Xu remained in police custody on Friday, hours before Chen’s trial was due to start.

Also on Friday, Beijing police told state media they had detained Gao Zhisheng, a combative human rights lawyer who has also campaigned for Chen’s release. Gao was held “for questioning for his suspected involvement in criminal activities,” the official Xinhua news agency said without offering further details.

Chen, 34, a blind, self-taught legal activist, drew international attention last year by accusing local officials of enforcing late-term abortions in a harsh population control drive.

According to a post in the forum (no link to the source article, sorry), they put a black bag over Gao’s head and led him away in handcuffs.

And we had such high hopes for the Hu regime. This piece from a year ago shouldn’t be forgotten:

For some Chinese political analysts and dissidents, these attacks on leading journalists dashed hopes that a new era of media freedom would begin when President Hu Jintao and his deputy, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, took power in early 2003.

There were encouraging signs when, soon after taking office, Hu called on the media to play a more active watchdog role in the battle to combat widespread official corruption and government inefficiency. However, by the end of 2003, critics complained that Hu had begun a campaign to suppress the media.

Kind of reminds one of Mao urging people to write letters detailing their issues with the government and letting 1,000 flowers bloom. They’re so good at raising our hopes, and even better at abruptly dashing them.