China Charges a Lawyer With Inciting Subversion

The Chinese police have charged a prominent human rights lawyer with inciting subversion, part of a crackdown on people who have sought to use China’s nascent legal system to limit the power of the state.

The lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, was taken into custody in mid-August and was formally arrested Sept. 21, but the police only recently made clear the nature of the charge, said his lawyer, Mo Shaoping.

If Mr. Gao ends up being indicted and tried on subversion charges, it could be one of the highest-profile prosecutions of an internationally recognized dissident in recent years.

China often uses the legal system to punish people it considers subversive. But in recent years it has mainly sought to prosecute them for violating ordinary criminal laws, like leaking state secrets, violating commercial codes, disrupting traffic or committing fraud.

Mr. Gao, 42, represented displaced homeowners, victims of official corruption and religious rights advocates, including members of the Falun Gong sect, which is banned in China.

He has become one of the most outspoken dissidents within China, writing frequent essays and polemics posted on the Internet that have sharply criticized the authorities and have predicted that the governing Communist Party will collapse because of corruption and abuse of power.