BEIJING — A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer went on trial Monday and potentially faces eight years in prison over seven social media posts.
Pu Zhiqiang, who has previously represented Chinese activists including Ai Weiwei, is accused of inciting ethnic hatred and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble," a catch-all charge the government has aggressively used in recent years to stymie political dissent.
The 50-year-old was arrested 18 months ago. The case is centered around seven posts on Pu's microblog criticizing ethnic policy and government officials in the restive province of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been working to quell unrest and outbursts of fighting amongst its Uighur minority.
In another of the posts on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, Pu attacked a government official following the deadly high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou in 2011 that killed 40 people. Pu also mocked Mao Xinyu, who is Mao Zedong's grandson.
Pu was detained in May 2014 with a number of other high-profile Chinese activists after attending a seminar on the Tiananmen Square incident in the run-up to last year's 25th anniversary.
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