Self-appointed citizen government watchdog Guo Yongfeng today at 9 a.m. had 8 officials from the Shenzhen Bureau of Civil Affairs search his house. Two computers were confiscated and Guo, his wife, and his daughter were interrogated.

On May 16, 25-year-old political dissident and Union of Chinese Nationalists (Mainland supporters of Taiwan's Nationalist Party) member Zhang Qi was detained for "suspicion to incite the subversion of state power." On June 20 a Chongqing branch procuratorate approved the arrest, but the charge was changed to "illegal possession of state secrets." It is reported that the grounds for this charge is a group picture including Zhang Qi in front of a discarded military tank.

The Chengdu writer Chen Daojun was sentenced on November 21 to three years of imprisonment for "inciting to subvert state power." Here in English translation is one of his essays from March.

Renowned magazine Annals of the Yellow Emperor (AYE) is under threat of a purge. Asiaweek Magazine has reported that the reason is the magazine's publishing of a cover story on Zhao Ziyang. This evoked the wrath of a former high-ranking Communist Party leader, who has pressured a present Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member to take action against the magazine. Pursuant to this, the Ministry of Culture used the rubric of age limitation to pressure publishers Du Daozheng and Yang Jisheng to retire. But AYE editor-in-chief Wu Si said in an interview today that the magazine's board opposes this proposal. Du Daozheng and Yang Jisheng also stated that they will continue to work for the magazine. It is rumored that the Party will take further political action against the well-known magazine specializing in Communist Party history.

The Independent Chinese PEN Center board of directors has approved the recommendation of its Imprisoned Writers Committee and awarded its 2008 second annual Imprisoned Writers Award to Lü Gengsong and Du Daobin. It also approved the proposal of honorary members accorded special scrutiny for the nine imprisoned writers and reporters Lü Gengsong, Hu Jia, He Yanjie, Chen Daojun, Ms. Ceng Hongling, Sun Lin, Zhang Yuhui, Xu Wanping and Hu Mingjun. The umbrella organization International PEN was notified of this decision.