Chinese woman 'detained' after tossing ink on Xi poster: activists

A woman who live-streamed herself throwing ink onto a picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping has been detained, according to activists who accuse authorities of suppressing speech to protect a "cult of personality" around the country's leader.

The US-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) activist network said authorities have also taken the woman's father and a Chinese artist into custody after they sought to publicise her plight on social media.

The woman, who has been identified by activists as 28-year-old Dong Yaoqiong, went live on Twitter on July 4 in a video in which she accused the ruling Communist Party of employing "oppressive brain control".

In the video, retweeted tens of thousands of times, Dong splashes ink on a poster bearing Xi's image at a location in Shanghai's financial district, saying defiantly: "Xi Jinping, I'm right here waiting for you to arrest me."