2nd legal activist sentenced as China reigns in critics

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese legal rights activist was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison on subversion charges Wednesday, in the second in a series of cases underscoring the ruling Communist Party's determination to rein in government critics.

A graduate of prestigious Peking University, Hu was a professor in the capital when he became active with a would-be political opposition party following the army's violent crackdown on 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The trials are part of a pattern established under the administration of President Xi Jinping to use more sophisticated legal means to attack perceived opponents as it maintains pressure on activists and non-governmental organizations.

Activists such as Hu and Zhai worked alone or in affiliation with law firms to gather evidence of government abuses and lead clients and the disgruntled in street protests while spreading word online.