Seven Dissidents Convicted as China Wraps Up Trials

The most important dissident trials since early last year concluded Tuesday, with a former editor at the official People’s Daily and six other political prisoners formally convicted of opposing Communist rule.

The journalist, Wu Xuecan, was arrested in 1989 for his role in producing a “People’s Daily Extra Edition” leaflet in support of that year’s Tian An Men Square pro-democracy demonstrations. Held for more than two years before trial, he was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison. Time already served is normally credited to sentences in China.

Student activist Peng Rong, arrested May 25, 1990, after he allegedly put up an illegal poster at Beijing University, received a two-year sentence. Wu, 48, Peng, 23, and the five other dissidents were all convicted of “counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement,” according to notices posted outside the Beijing People’s Intermediate Court.

Two other prominent student activists, Li Minqi and Zhai Weimin, were also among those convicted Tuesday.

Information about the length of sentences for Li and Zhai was not immediately available. Trials of political prisoners in China are not open to coverage by the foreign press, and the families of prisoners face possible punishment if caught talking to foreign reporters.

Also convicted Tuesday, according to the court notices, were Wang Guoqing, Wang Zhongxian and Dong Huaiming. Those names apparently do not appear on lists of political prisoners maintained by Western news offices in Beijing and international human rights groups.

With the exception of a few former high-ranking government or Communist Party officials who may face trial in connection with the protests, China has now completed court action for virtually all the prominent political prisoners arrested in connection with the protests and their aftermath.

It is unclear, however, how many hundreds--or perhaps thousands--of lesser-known dissidents have been arrested and remain imprisoned either with or without trial.

Asia Watch, the New York-based human rights group, named about 1,150 imprisoned dissidents in 1990.