Shang Baojun

A court convicted one of China's most prominent rights lawyers on Dec. 22 of "inciting ethnic hatred" and trouble-making with posts criticising the government, handing down a suspended sentence that means he avoids jail but will not practise law again.

A Chinese court has sentenced a journalist accused of leaking an internal Communist Party document to a foreign website to seven years in prison, her lawyer said on April 17, a ruling that reflects the sensitivity surrounding the party's inner workings.