China Frees a Leader of 1989 Pro-Democracy Movement

Bao Zunxin, a philosopher and a leader of China’s 1989 pro-democracy movement, was released from prison Wednesday, the official New China News Agency reported.

Bao, 55, who was serving a five-year term, is the most prominent figure convicted in connection with the Tian An Men Square pro-democracy protests to be released before completion of sentence.

Many other dissidents are still imprisoned, and opposition to Communist Party rule remains illegal in China. But Bao’s release fits a pattern of gradual easing of political repression and ideological control that has been visible in China over the past year.

Before his imprisonment, Bao, a researcher in the History Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was widely respected as one of China’s leading intellectuals. He spoke out against the imposition of martial law in Beijing before the bloody crackdown that ended the protests. He also tried to organize intellectuals into an independent organization.

Hong Kong television and radio reports Wednesday evening said that student activist Wang Dan, an even more prominent leader of the 1989 protests, had also been released. But there was no official confirmation of this.

A sufficient number of prisoner releases could help China ensure that there is no rupture of Sino-U.S. trade relations under the incoming Clinton Administration. During the election campaign, Bill Clinton said he favored attaching human rights conditions to the continuation of China’s current favorable trade status.

The New China News Agency, in reporting Bao’s release, said he was being let out of prison early on probation because he had shown “repentance.” Bao’s crime had been “instigating and participating in the turmoils and riots aiming at overthrowing the government,” the official news agency said.

He was arrested in July, 1989, and sentenced to five years in jail on Jan. 26, 1991. With credit for time served before sentencing, he was due for release in July, 1994.

Bao is believed to have attempted suicide several times while imprisoned, said a source quoted by the U.S.-based human rights group Asia Watch. The source also said that Bao has shown signs of mental illness and suffers from heart disease and high blood pressure.

Bao’s wife and daughter came to the prison Wednesday to take him home, the official Chinese news agency reported.