Despite China's promise to improve freedom of the press ahead of the Beijing Olympics, at least 80 journalists and Internet users are currently imprisoned in the country, including leading activist Hu Jia.

Hu was last seen by international observers in November 2007, when he took part in a human rights discussion organized by the European Union in Brussels. He spoke to the attendees via webcam from Beijing.

Chinese authorities arrested Hu on Dec. 27, accusing the 34-year-old activist of "inciting subversion of state power," according to Reporters Without Borders.

Liu Jianchao, a Chinese foreign ministry official, would not tell CTV News the specific reasons behind Hu's arrest. He would only say that Hu illegally challenged the state and that he is not above the law.

Before Hu's arrest, he had spoken out against issues that had embarrassed Chinese authorities, like the government's seizure of land from poor farmers.

And while under house arrest last year, he filmed a documentary showing police harassing his wife, Zeng Jinyan. Both Hu and Zeng were candidates for the EU's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded to human rights advocates.

His wife remains under house arrest, along with Hu's two-month-old daughter, sometimes called the world's youngest political prisoner.

Plainclothes officers prevented CTV's Steve Chao from visiting Hu's family. The censorship has continued despite promises from government officials that the Beijing Olympics would bring total freedom for journalists and improve human rights.

Dean Peng, an economist, has been arrested twice in China for simply debating online whether farmers have a right to own land.

"They are an evil state and from all these acts you can see that the Chinese government is a hooligan state," he said.

With a report by CTV's Steve Chao in Beijing