Dissent Before The Olympics

A Chinese land rights activist, Yang Chunlin, went on trail recently for protesting the Beijing Olympics. Yang's charge (a laid off factory worker) includes that he collaborated with farmers --whose land was taken from them for development purposes. He gathered signatures via a letter in the attempt to gain land rights for farmers. That letter was later posted to the Internet. Yang argued in court that the land the farmers lost had been taken wrongly because it was taken without the Cabinet’s permission. The official charge against Yang is subversion of state power. No doubt Beijing is trying to stop any dissent before the world looks to China in the Summer Games.