Four free speech trials to start after being postponed to avoid embarrassing President Hu during his visit to Washington.

Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Just weeks after President Hu Jintao presented a softer line on human rights during a trip to the US, at least four journalists and internet writers are expected to stand trial this month for expressing their opinion on the pages of the illegal free press and internet.

Yang Xiaoqing, a journalist in Hunan province whose reporting exposed alleged graft among local Communist Party officials, is expected to stand trial next week, charged with extortion. Li Yuanlong, a reporter in Guizhou, has been charged with inciting subversion for posting essays critical of the government on the internet. And internet writers Yang Tianshui and Li Jianping are set to be tried this month over critical postings.

"Most of these cases were originally scheduled for February and March, but they were delayed because Hu Jintao went to the United States," said Li Jianqiang, a lawyer representing two of the men. "Now is a better time—it's after his trip and before June 4," he said, referring to the anniversary of the military crackdown on student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

The human rights record on the mainland, where everything from critical internet postings to religious worship can be punished with a jail term, has long been a source of friction in relations between Washington and Beijing.  Under Chinese law in fact, displaying religious symbols in public and publishing critical or unseemly opinions are felonies.

"On the one hand he [the Chinese President] would be talking about human rights and on the other hand China would be continuously opening new trials for those dissident writers," said Liu Xiaobo, president of the China chapter of International PEN "While Hu Jintao was in the United States that would have been embarrassing."

Although life for cyber-dissidents is getting harder, the internet market is growing exponentially according to government figures. Statistics from Baidu.com, China's search engine company, show that the number of weblogs now stands at 36 million and is expected to reach 100 next year.

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