Tiananmen Square protest leader goes on trial in China

A long-term US resident and former leader of student protests in Tiananmen Square went on trial in China this morning, one day after Barack Obama concluded his visit to the country. Zhou Yongjun is accused of fraud charges involving a bank in Hong Kong, his lawyer and his girlfriend told Reuters. She and other supporters said they believed the charges were a pretext to punish him for years of activism. Zhou was a leader of the Beijing Students Autonomous Union and was jailed for two years following the bloody suppression of the 1989 protests. "I know from the lawyers that he's on trial today, but the whole process has been kept secret," Zhang Yuewei, Zhou's girlfriend, said from Los Angeles where she lives. She said Zhou's immediate family had told her of the trial in Shehong county, in the south-western Sichuan province. In an email to Reuters, she added: "Holding the trial at this time was to show the US president ... the Chinese government maybe believes that it has the power and cash to go up against the United States and international society."