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Xu Zhiyong disappeared in Beijing. The lawyer and blogger (PDF) disappeared last Friday, telling friends he was being "taken away to the suburbs." He was seen with unidentified men.

He may be facing a resuscitation of tax charges he saw levied against him in 2009. He is one of many bloggers and activists detained and disappeared in the wake of an abortive "Jasmine Revolution" inspired by the Arab Spring.

In preparation for the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4th, China has started to block a number of web sites, including Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, Hotmail, and Microsoft's new search engine Bing. Tech-savvy Internet users in China, of course, know how to circumvent the Great Firewall, but for the large majority of Chinese Internet users, these sites will remain blocked for the foreseeable future. In addition to these high-profile sites, the Guardian also reports that the Great Firewall now also blocks access to more than 6,000 online forums affiliated with colleges and universities.