A historic Chinese crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists is underway on massive scale | Democracy, elections and voting at Democracy Chronicles

BEIJING — Chinese police have detained more than 220 lawyers and human rights activists during the last three weeks, one of the widest suppressions of dissent since Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012. Authorities have forced public confessions from some of those detained. State media have labeled several as “venal scam artists.” As of…