About 20 uniformed police flanked the court building in Hangzhou where Wang Youcai, a former leader from the 1989 students' pro-democracy protests, was being tried. Wang's wife and two family friends were the only supporters of his side allowed to attend the two-and-a-half hour session.

Meanwhile, 500 km to the West in Wuhan, veteran activist Qin Yongmin's also went on trial. Police detained a man who shouted to Qin as he was taken away in a police van following the session. Another man who attempted to make a speech outside the courthouse also was seized by police.

Wang and Qin were charged with trying to subvert state power, apparently for their involvement in trying to set up the China Democracy Party. They could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

The trials arepart of the communist party's most aggressive crackdown in two years on challengers to its monopoly on power. More than 30 people associated with the China Democracy Party have been detained or questioned in a 17-day-old campaign.