Chinese police have detained dozens of dissidents and human rights activists to stop them from staging protests or trying to meet Barack Obama, the US president, who has requested personal meetings with at least one prominent human rights lawyer during his three-day visit to China.
Mo Shaoping, one of China's best-known human rights lawyers, told the Financial Times he had been contacted by people “from the American side” to see whether he would meet Mr Obama, who arrived in China last night for the third leg of his inaugural Asia tour as president.
Mr Mo was subsequently questioned by Chinese public security officers who wanted to know details of the planned meeting. The US embassy said it had no knowledge of such a meeting.