``We have received a letter from Wang Ce asking the family to find him a lawyer,'' his sister Wang Xiren told AFP over telephone.

``Wang Ce is likely to be tried for endangering state security in the near future,'' the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a statement.

Wang, 50, was detained on November 2 after returning clandestinely to China in October via Portuguese-administered Macau, and formally arrested on December 10.

It was not known how he travelled to China, because his Chinese passport had not been renewed after the routine expiry date, his sister said.

His route was similar to that taken by US-based activist Wang Bingzhang in January, whose subsequent expulsion was seen as proof that the Chinese Communist Party was easing up on its politicalopponents, relying on a lack of organisation and distance to neutralise their activities.

Now, the government has launched a crackdown on dissident after activists orchestrated a nationwide campaign to register the fledgling China Democracy Party (CDP), the first such attempt since the beginning of Communist rule in 1949.