New York Times – HONG KONG — The police in Beijing have detained one of China’s most prominent rights advocates, the latest in a series of arrests that critics said showed the Communist Party’s determination to silence campaigners who have challenged the party to act on its vows to expose official corruption and respect rule of law.

The rights advocate, Xu Zhiyong, was held by the public transportation police on Tuesday on charges of “assembling a crowd to disrupt order in a public place,” although he has been under informal house arrest for more than three months, his wife, Cui Zheng, confirmed by telephone on Wednesday. Liu Weiguo, a lawyer whom Mr. Xu had earlier asked to represent him, said he was baffled that Mr. Xu, a legal scholar accustomed to police pressure, could be accused of thwarting his guards and starting a public ruckus.