A veteran Chinese activist who was involved in the 1989 Tiananmen protests has been jailed for 10 years.
Chen Xi was convicted of subverting state power after a trial lasting a few hours. He had published essays online criticising the Communist Party.
The jailing comes days after another activist, Chen Wei, was imprisoned for the same offence.
Rights groups expressed outrage and accused Beijing of using the Christmas period as cover for a crackdown.
“It does work really well because there’s no diplomatic activity around Christmas,” said Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch.
“By the time the diplomats get back to their desks, the sequence of events has moved on.”
