12/16/0 5:56 (New York)

BEIJING, Dec 16 (AFP) - A Chinese trade unionist has been interned in a psychiatric hospital after giving interviews to American media, a Hong Kong-based pressure group reported Saturday.

Cao Maobing, 42, was detained on Friday at the Number 4 psychiatric hospital in Yancheng town, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Over previous days Cao had appealed to Chinese authorities to respect trade union freedom, in articles published in the New York Times and Washington Post and repeated by the Voice of America (VOA) radio station.

According the Information Centre, Cao had defied the authorities last month by writing a request for official recognition of his trade union.

The request was signed by 300 silk factory workers in Funing, a small town north of Yancheng, where Cao worked as an electrician.

Half the factory's 2.000 employees had been laid off amid the reform of non-profitable state enterprises.

However the workers had denounced embezzlement by the factory owners, who they said had become rich at the expense of the company.

The Yancheng hospital confirmed to AFP that Cao was a patient, but refused to pass the call onto him. The official who spoke also would not specify why the trade unionist had been detained in the hospital.

According to the Information Centre, Cao's family have insisted he was not suffering from any psychiatric illnesses.

Internment in psychiatric hospitals has made a return in China over recent months as a means of repression for political opponents.

This has been particularly the case for adherents of the banned Falungong [group], at least 600 of whom have been subjected to such treatment, according to the Information Centre.