Chinese Lawyer Says He Was Detained and Warned on Activism

By JIM YARDLEY | The New York Times
March 09, 2008

Beijing public security agents released a Chinese human rights lawyer on Saturday after detaining him two days earlier without notice and forcing him to endure intensive questioning at an unknown location, the lawyer said.

The lawyer, Teng Biao, 34, said he was released after 41 hours in custody. Mr. Teng, reached by telephone, said four officers from the Beijing Public Security Bureau grabbed him on Thursday night at a parking lot outside his apartment and then drove him away.

Mr. Teng, who is also a part-time college professor, said he was not sure where he was taken. He said that he was not physically harmed but that officers had questioned him sternly and warned him about recent articles he had posted on the Internet.

Mr. Teng refused to discuss his detention further, saying the officers had cautioned him against speaking out.

The government has not spoken publicly about the case.

Mr. Teng's detention was the latest example of how China is moving against some of its more outspoken dissidents, lawyers and human rights advocates. International rights groups have cited the crackdown as evidence that the ruling Communist Party is failing to fulfill promises to improve the country's human rights record before Beijing plays host to the Olympics in August.

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