Another writer sentenced as China's crackdown continues BEIJING - Chinese writer and activist Li Tie was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "inciting subversion," his family members said Thursday. Li is the third high-profile dissident handed a lengthy term in the past few weeks, part of a Communist Party crackdown ahead of a scheduled leadership change later this year. Like the two activists sentenced in December, Li was tried and convicted for essays he posted on the Internet demanding greater democracy. The convictions indicate that the government in Beijing sees online treatises, and the followers they might garner, as a serious threat to the country's political and social stability. Li, from Wuhan city in Hubei province, was sentenced Wednesday, his family members said. He was not allowed to hire a lawyer. Human rights groups outside China say that the three recent sentences far exceed those normally given for such charges and perhaps reflect official nervousness about the first anniversary of the Middle East uprisings known as the "Arab Spring," which prompted shadowy Internet calls for similar protests here in China. On Dec. 26, a court in Guizhou sentenced veteran human rights campaigner Chen Xi to 10 years in prison. Three days earlier in Sichuan province, activist Chen Wei was sentenced to nine years. Both were convicted of "inciting subversion of state power." Another activist, Zhu Yufu, was charged this week with the same crime for a poem he posted online titled "It's Time," which urges Chinese people to stand up for their freedoms. 2012 is a crucial year for China's ruling Communist Party, which is preparing for its first top-level leadership changes in a decade. Analysts note that authorities are worried about anything that could disrupt the carefully choreographed shuffle in which Vice President Xi Jinping is slated to take over as general secretary of the party and, later, as the country's president. Leadership changes are typically closed-door affairs in China, with the new general secretary and the powerful nine-member ruling Politburo Standing Committee introduced on a stage at an autumn Party Congress in Beijing once all the backroom deal-making is complete. Ordinary Chinese citizens play no part, other than as spectators. But this will also be the first leadership change to take place in an age when tens of millions of Chinese feel empowered to speak out through the hugely popular Twitter-like microblogging sites collectively known here as "weibo." The weibo sites have given many Chinese an alternative source for information that once was censored, and a new outlet for expressing opinions and views in real time on matters once deemed too sensitive even for whispers in public places. Recent official statistics from the China Internet Network Information Center showed there are now 513 million Internet users in the country of 1.3 billion people. The number of microbloggers quadrupled in 2011 to 250 million. Authorities signaled this week that they are trying to bring that relatively freewheeling microblogging world under tighter control. A handful of eastern cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, have been experimenting with a pilot program requiring people signing up for weibo accounts to register with their real name and identity card numbers, making it easier to trace them if they post something the government doesn't like. Wang Chen, the State Council information minister, said Wednesday that the pilot program will be extended nationwide and made retroactive to people already microblogging under nicknames and pseudonyms.