BEIJING — A small but stubborn protest movement is continuing calls for demonstrations despite a campaign of arrests and censorship that underscores China’s concern over unrest and revolts in authoritarian countries in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, three people were detained for “inciting subversion of state power” after they reposted calls for protests last weekend. The detentions could not be confirmed independently, but they follow roundups of scores of dissidents and rights lawyers. Some well-known lawyers who handle sensitive cases were placed under house arrest and some were beaten badly, according to human rights activists.

Activists, possibly from outside China, have called on citizens in China to express their displeasure at the country’s lack of reforms and officials’ corruption by silently meeting in front of department stores or other public areas for a “Jasmine Revolution,” a named borrowed from the Tunisian revolt that set off the Middle East unrest.

Organizers have now called for the protests to continue each Sunday, and gave a list of spots in a dozen major cities where people could “go for a stroll” this coming Sunday at 2 p.m. Because the calls are made via Twitter and other services widely blocked in China, they circulate only to those who know how to bypass Internet censors. But Chinese authorities have been responding with their customary zeal. On Sunday, a protest in Beijing was overwhelmed by police officers.

And the word “jasmine” has been blocked on popular social networking sites and chat rooms. The authorities might have a hard time eradicating the word completely. Jasmine is also the name of a popular Chinese folk song.  It was supposedly the favorite of China’s previous leader, Jiang Zemin, who asked it to be played at the 1997 transfer of Hong Kong, the former British colony, to China. In addition, videos exist of China’s current leader, Hu Jintao singing the song while on a trip in Africa.

Some of these videos were posted on social networking sites, forcing censors to have to decide if they should take down videos of senior leaders that could be explained as an expression of patriotism.  “The real story is the indirect ways that Chinese citizens can use music and historical meaning to make this incredibly subversive statement, to take a most popular folk song and post it,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of New York-based Human Rights in China. “The point is there is an information crack and it is growing.”