China holds 2 bloggers amid crackdown on rumours

BEIJING - Police in China have arrested an influential blogger and are holding a cartoonist in a widening crackdown on online "rumour-mongering", friends and a lawyer for one of them said on Thursday.

Hundreds of people have been detained since August, say Chinese media and rights groups, as the government has stepped up its campaign to combat rumours. Most have been released, but some are still being held on criminal charges.

The latest moves targeting the bloggers appear to suggest the new government, led by President Xi Jinping, is expanding its crackdown on dissent, although some critics have warned the move could backfire on Communist Party leaders.

"The use of these dictatorship tools to combat the criticism and grievances within civil society could be counterproductive," said Zhang Lifan, a historian, adding it could fuel mistrust.

"It may not be beneficial for maintaining the regime."

Dong Rubin, 51, who runs an Internet consulting company, has been arrested in southwestern Kunming on "suspicion of falsely declaring the capital in his company's registration", state news agency Xinhua said late on Wednesday.

Dong was also suspected of illegal business operations and the crime of "creating disturbances", Xinhua added.

Dong, who was previously invited by officials in southern Nanjing to speak about being an "online opinion leader", is well known for participating in a 2009 online probe into the sudden death of a man in a detention house in Yunnan province.

Dong has "confessed to the police on the rumour-mongering", Xinhua said.

Dong's lawyer, Yang Mingkua, told Reuters by telephone it was not convenient for him to be interviewed, but referred to a legal opinion published on his microblog.

"When the air is filled with voices that are unharmonious, that is not a sign of weakness, but a symbol of strength," Yang wrote of Dong's case on the microblog in September. "The freedom to speak and criticise is a citizen's right."