U.S. Is Pressing China to Let Dissidents Leave

The United States is pressing China to live up to an agreement to allow freed political dissidents to leave the country, J. Stapleton Roy, the American ambassador to China, said Friday.

Roy said that China’s most-favored-nation trading status would be in jeopardy if Beijing does not improve human rights.

The diplomat told a news conference here that American officials met with their Chinese counterparts this week and reiterated Washington’s demands that dissidents who are not in jail or facing criminal charges be given the right to travel abroad. He said the Chinese officials told the Americans that the agreement was still in place.

Since Secretary of State James A. Baker III announced the understanding in November, only one dissident, journalist Dai Qing, has left the country. Dai went to Harvard University on a Nieman Fellowship on Dec. 22.

Roy said that China is “not moving as far ahead as one would expect” on the issue.

Earlier, in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce of Hong Kong, the ambassador said that China’s most-favored-nation trading status would be in jeopardy if China does not improve human rights, open its markets wider and curb its sales of missiles and nuclear-related equipment.