Chinese police recently busted an organization which had been receiving overseas funds to conduct activities that endanger national security in the name of human rights, detaining several people, including a Swedish citizen.

Peter Dahlin, a Swedish citizen working with the Chinese Urgent Action Working Group (China Action), was placed under "criminal compulsory measures," according to Chinese law, on suspicion of "endangering national security," media reported on January 13.

Dahlin, together with lawyers from the Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm, established an organization and had allegedly been receiving substantial funds from seven overseas organizations, the Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday.

They set up over 10 "legal aid centers" in the Chinese mainland to train unlicensed lawyers and support a few petitioners to defame China and sensationalize social issues.

The organization, Joint Development Institute Limited, was established in Hong Kong in 2009 and failed to get mainland approval. The organization hired and trained others to gather, fabricate and distort information about China, providing "China's human rights report" to overseas organizations, Xinhua reported.

Dahlin confessed that "almost all the reports came from online resources … I cannot guarantee the authenticity of the reports." He said that an unnamed overseas NGO required his organization to file at least 96 lawsuits against the Chinese government every year.