China arrests leading Tiananmen Square dissident

Lui, 53, was arrested Tuesday, a police statement printed by Xinhua news agency said.

Liu, who had been detained without charges for more than six months, is accused of "agitation activities aimed at subversion of the government and overthrowing of the socialist system," Xinhua reported Wednesday, citing the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

Liu has confessed to the charge, the report added.

Liu has been held incommunicado since December after signing Charter 08, a widely circulated petition that called for greater democracy in China. His formal arrest makes it much more likely that he will later be sentenced to prison, according to Chinese lawyers and human rights activists.

His lawyer, Mo Shaoping, told reporters he had no knowledge of the arrest. Mo has not been allowed to see Liu since December.

The arrest of Liu, a prominent crusader for political reform, is likely to draw new criticism of China's human rights practices. A former literature professor, he began advocating democracy during the 1980s, and was imprisoned after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests for staging a hunger strike.

He was arrested two days after the Tiananmen crackdown. He was released in 1991. In May 1995, he was detained again, this time for collecting signatures for a petition calling for human rights guarantees.