Beijing Appears to Soften Its Rights Stand : Diplomacy: Chinese officials welcome a special U.S. envoy, apparently accepting foreign concern and comment on political repression.

Hope for a possible easing of political repression in China has emerged from a visit by the State Department’s top human rights envoy, American officials said Wednesday.

Richard Schifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, said that Chinese officials, in two days of discussions, accepted for the first time that human rights is a legitimate factor in Sino-U.S. relations.

China previously has rejected foreign concern about repression here as unwarranted interference in its internal affairs.

Schifter, who met with a range of officials including Vice Foreign Minister Tian Zengpei and Assistant Minister of Public Security Wang Jingrong, said he told the Chinese that all political prisoners who have not committed violent acts--an estimated 400 people--should be released.

Speaking at a press conference in the American Embassy, Schifter said he presented his Chinese hosts with a list of 150 prisoners whose cases the U.S. government wishes to discuss. The list includes students, workers, Tibetans, Catholic priests and those jailed for pro-democracy activities in the late 1970s.

Chinese authorities are preparing to bring to trial leaders of last year’s pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing, which were ended by a brutal army crackdown. Schifter said he did not suggest possible U.S. actions if severe sentences are imposed on these people, most of whom have already been imprisoned for about 18 months.

But Chinese leaders realize, he said, that there is strong sentiment in Congress to strip China of favorable trade status if political repression intensifies.

“We hope for the best,” Schifter said. “It is certainly a shift as far as the formality is concerned. . . . We were able to make the points and we were not simply shrugged off. Whether it will ultimately have beneficial results, time will tell.”

U.S. Ambassador James R. Lilley, who noted that he has engaged in “bitter exchanges” with Chinese officials, said the Chinese stance at the latest meetings, which he also attended, was “at the top of the scale in terms of accommodation or positive attitude.”

He indicated that he views the decision to welcome Schifter to Beijing as an important step, probably taken against opposition.

“I would say it was a very difficult decision for them to make,” Lilley said.

Schifter said that in his discussions, he also raised American concerns about the rights of religious believers, the treatment of Tibetan dissidents and suspected abuses in China’s strict family planning program.

The only prisoner on the discussion list whom Schifter named was Wei Jingsheng, a pro-democracy activist imprisoned since 1979.

One U.S. official said he believes there has been “a certain easing of the climate of repression” in recent months, a result of external as well as internal pressure.

“I think China basically concluded that . . . business as usual with major countries around the world . . . was simply not going to occur until China made some attempt to ameliorate some of the more egregious aspects of human rights abuses,” he said.