Japan Quietly Shelters China Dissidents

More than two years after pledging to shelter Chinese dissidents living in Japan from possible persecution, the Japanese government is finally moving to carry out its promise. But the move will be cloaked in abstractions to avoid any affront to the Beijing government.

In June, immigration authorities asked a volunteer group of Japanese lawyers to submit applications en masse for “special activities” visas for all Chinese dissidents in Japan who fear persecution if forced to return to China, said Kazuhiko Yamagishi, a member of the lawyers’ group.

Coming on the heels of approval June 1 of one such visa for a Chinese dissident, the request implies that the applications will be approved, he said. A government official confirmed that the Justice Ministry intends to approve the applications.

Applications were submitted July 2 for the 23 Chinese whose status in Japan is threatened, said both Yamagishi and Zhao Nan, head of the Tokyo branch of the Federation for a Democratic China, based in Paris.

Zhao, 40, a prime target for persecution, said up to 100 Chinese would face persecution if forced to go home. But “the others have long-term visas and are not in danger now,” he said.

A former editor of a now-defunct anti-government magazine, Zhao was arrested in China in 1982 for dissident activities and spent 21 months in a labor camp. When he came to Japan in 1988, he signed a pledge to refrain from any anti-government activities, but the crackdown at Tian An Men Square June 3-4, 1989, brought him back into the pro-democracy movement, he said.

Membership in the federation, labeled a “counterrevolutionary organization” by Beijing, is punishable by up to 15 years’ imprisonment.

Newfound sympathy for the Chinese dissidents appears to coincide with preparations for Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu’s visit to China and Mongolia on Aug. 10-14.

Kaifu’s China trip will be the first by any leader of the seven nations that participate in annual economic summits since the 1989 military crackdown in Beijing. The seven nations pledged at that time to extend visas or grant permanent residence to Chinese dissidents in each of their countries. But Japan, until July 2, had insisted on judging each dissident’s situation.

“To gain international understanding for its restoration of full relations with China, Japan will have to show that it is allowing political asylum for Chinese dissidents,” said Fumihiko Sugiyama, an associate professor at Tokai University who has been helping the volunteer lawyers.

The rare visas that the 23 dissidents are expected to receive carry the explanation that they were issued because of “special circumstances that occurred in the home country of the recipient”--intentionally vague language that avoids pointing a finger at China’s human rights violations. The visa provides for a six-month residence and is renewable.

Immigration authorities have refused to grant refugee visas, which would allow permanent residence in Japan, because to “define the students as refugees . . . would be tantamount to saying that there is human rights oppression in China,” said Yaeko Takeoka, another of the lawyers.

Christine Lamarre, a Kyoto University lecturer, called the special activities visa “cheap refugee status.” While it might provide the beginning of a solution, it still leaves the Chinese dissidents’ future uncertain.