China Sentences Earthquake Activist

China's government sentenced Tan Zuoren, an activist who questioned official accounts of school collapses in the massive Sichuan earthquake of 2008, to five years in prison after convicting him on subversion charges, the government's latest move in an escalating campaign to strangle dissent.

A court in the provincial capital of Chengdu on Tuesday found Mr. Tan guilty of inciting subversion of state power for writings that commemorated the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, according to his lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang.

However, Mr. Pu, along with human rights groups and other supporters, say they believe the underlying reason for Mr. Tan's prosecution was his investigations into the collapse of school buildings during the May 2008 earthquake and the resulting deaths of thousands of schoolchildren.