Twitter users in China face detention, threats in new Beijing crackdown

One man spent 15 days in a detention center. The police threatened another’s family. A third was chained to a chair for eight hours of interrogation.

Their offense: posting on Twitter. The Chinese police, in a sharp escalation of the country’s online censorship efforts, are questioning and detaining a growing number of Twitter users even though the social media platform is blocked in China and the vast majority of people in the country cannot see it.

The crackdown is the latest front in President Xi Jinping’s campaign to suppress internet activity. In effect, the authorities are extending their control over Chinese citizens’