The arrest of rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong earlier this month has caused an outcry - but is taken to be seen as sign of considerable concern among the Communist party at the growing influence of campaigning groups, according to The Financial Times. Mr Xu - under house arrest - has been working to set up a network of activists who could co-operate with each other, from their different interest groups.'Civil society has already become very firm and deep-rooted in China," said the director of the Centre for Civil Society Studies at Peking University, Gao Bingzhong.

Not just rubber-stamping

He says that delegates at the National People's Congress, the national legislature, are increasingly consulting civil society groups rather than just rubber-stamping the proposals which are put before them. Another example of people getting together to protect their rights is the growth of flat-owners' groups. Chen Youhong, associate professor at the School of Public Administration at Renmin University, estimates that a third of condominium developments in Beijing now have an association of apartment-owners.