FILE - This July 17, 2009 file photo shows legal scholar Xu Zhiyong at a meeting in Beijing, China. Chinese authorities are ramping up prosecutions of rights activists during the year-end holidays, apparently hoping the West will pay less attention to its wide-ranging crackdown on dissent that has drawn international criticism throughout the year. In Beijing, the lawyer representing Xu, a prominent legal activist who founded the New Citizens Movement, a loose network of campaigners against corruption and for equal access to education, said authoritative sources told him Xu would be put on trial in late December. (AP Photo/Greg Baker, File)