With a legal manoeuvre, Liu Ping's lawyers, Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua, successfully scuttled the first hearing of his trial to "provide an opportunity for the court to rectify its mistakes". The three defendants are close to the 'New Citizens Movement', which calls on the government to make public assets and private interests of Communist officials. Since April, at least 18 activists have been arrested.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - The authorities in the eastern province of Jiangxi have been forced to adjourn on its first day the trial of three anti-corruption activists in detention since last April.

The three defendants - Liu Ping, Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua - were initially accused of "inciting subversion of state power". The charge was later dropped in favour of "unlawful assembly".

In reality, they are in prison for demanding political leaders disclose their assets and business interests in the name of transparency, a theme also backed by China's new president, Xi Jinping.

Liu Ping is a member (the other two are supporters) of the 'New Citizens Movement' founded by his lawyer and human rights activist Xu Zhiyong, who has also been in jail since 16 July for demanding greater transparency of politicians' assets.

Liu and Wei also have to answer for the crime of "using an evil cult to undermine law enforcement" since both are members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which Beijing has outlawed.

The three were arrested when they posted online a picture showing themselves holding banners demanding the release of other activists under arrest.

At the start of the trial, defence lawyers argued that the trial should not proceed because judges illegally extended their clients' detention without due process. For this, they latter should be released, since the trial had not taken place within three months, as required by law.

Although the judges refused the request to release the defendants, they were forced to adjourn the case since Liu Ping's lawyers said their client had terminated their contracts.

Zhang Xuezhong, one of Liu's lawyers, said that under Chinese law, defendants have 15 days to appoint new lawyers, so that ending the contract was in his client's interest.

The "will provide an opportunity for the court to rectify its mistakes," he explained. However, the large deployment of forces around the court does not bode well.

With this case, the number of arrests among Xu Zhiyong's movement has risen to 18.

The battle against corruption among the Communist Party officials has also been the leitmotif of China's new leader, Xi Jinping, who has repeatedly said he wanted to fight abuse and mismanagement "at every level" among those in power.

As various analysts point out however, these words seem meant more to justify the power struggle within the leadership than to eradicate corruption from within its ranks.

• china
• trial
• activists
• corruption
• adjournment