WORLD : China Activist Denies Charge

Looking pale and thin from a four-day hunger strike, a leading democracy activist told a court today that the sedition charge against him was “unfair and incorrect,” sources close to his family said.

Chen Ziming, the 38-year-old founder of a private research institute, began the hunger strike Thursday in an attempt to postpone the trial so his lawyer would have more time to prepare a defense. His lawyer was allowed access to the government materials on Chen only last week, after his charges were formally lodged with the court.

Chen gave advice behind the scenes to the college students who led the movement. He was arrested in the fall of 1989, several months after the army crushed the movement, and has been in solitary confinement since.