China dissidents 'detained ahead of Obama visit'

China has detained several dissidents and campaigners ahead of President Obama's much-anticipated first visit to the country, their relatives and close contacts told AFP Saturday. Obama arrives in Shanghai on Sunday and moves onto Beijing the next day for a four-day maiden presidential trip during which he has been urged to raise human rights with the Asian giant's top leadership. But as the visit drew close, the head of an activist group for parents whose children were sickened by tainted milk in China had been detained, his wife told AFP. "Zhao Lianhai was criminally detained for 'provoking an incident'," Li Xuemei said in a text, without giving further details. According to activist group Human Rights in China, Zhao was handcuffed and taken away late Friday night by police officers who searched his house and took away computers, a video recorder, a camera and an address book. When Zhao refused to go with them, as the summons did not state a cause, the police officers filled in "provoking an incident" in the summons, the group said. Police in Beijing would not comment on the case.