As the country prepares to open the 2008 Summer Olympics in three weeks, Chinese officials have arrested a writer and dissident who was already on probation after being charged a few years ago.

As reported, Du Daobin, 43, who was arrested after published at least 100 articles and essays on several foreign Web sites.

The Chinese government was expected to begin a pre-Olympic campaign against dissent, and Du is the first person to experience the crackdown. Human rights organizations said activists have been detained and arrested to help protect Olympic security, which has caused an uproar among government critics.

Another Internet activist, Huang Qi, was arrested and charged with illegal possession of state secrets after reportedly collecting information regarding children that died in the May 12 earthquake. Huang was reportedly attempting to reveal local government corruption that led to poor engineering of the school.

China has a checkered history of arresting dissidents, journalists and bloggers who speak out against the government and its actions both domestically and internationally. Human rights organizations often butt heads with China over the arrests.

So do you dare to be a blogger in china ? :)