China has arrested a dissident

A court in eastern China has sentenced dissident writer Zhu Yufu to seven years in jail for a poem found to have incited subversion, rights groups say.

The BBC reports that the court in Hanzhou ruled that Mr. Zhu's poem It's Time, urging people to gather in support of freedom, deserved stern punishment, his son said.

A verse of his poem reads: "It's time, Chinese people! / The square belongs to everyone / the feet are yours / it's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice."

In December, prominent activists Chen Wei from Sichuan and Chen Xi from Guizhou were also sentenced to prison terms for inciting subversion of state power, the BBC says.