ONE of the more hopeful flickering signs of democracy in China in the past few years has been the growth of public-interest lawyers willing to challenge in court examples of abuse and corruption by the state or local governments. Now, the empire is striking back.

On July 17th government officials descended on one of the best-known legal research groups and took away almost everything it owned?files, desks, computers, even the water cooler. To make matters worse, the tax authorities slapped on the group a colossal bill, ordering it to pay 1.42m yuan ($207,900).