China defends blocking trip by activist's wife

BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) China today defended a decision last week to stop the wife of a blind, jailed activist going to the Philippines to pick up an award on his behalf, saying she was suspected of ''criminal activities''.

Yuan Weijing's husband, Chen Guangcheng, was one of seven winners of the Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation this year.

Chen was jailed for four years and three months last year for disrupting traffic and damaging property, charges his wife and critics say were concocted by officials angry at his exposure of forced late-term abortions in his hometown in Shandong province.

''In March 2006, the Shandong province's public security authorities announced that her personal passport had been revoked as she was suspected of involvement in criminal activities,'' the Public Security Ministry said in a faxed statement to Reuters.

''On August. 24, 2007, when Yuan wanted to leave the country from Beijing airport, her expired passport was confiscated in accordance with the law by the airport immigration officials,'' it added.

The statement provided no further details and did not say why it had taken a week for the ministry to provide an official explanation.

Yuan was detained at the airport and then bundled into the back of a car and driven back to Shandong, a relative told Reuters.

Last Friday, police also accosted and briefly detained a small group of foreign reporters who had gone to the house in Beijing where Yuan was staying before her flight.

Foreign journalists were supposed to have been given greater freedom to report since the start of the year, ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But, in practice, police still detain reporters when they see fit.

REUTERS GL RK1045