Christopher Won’t Meet China Dissidents

Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Thursday that he has no plans to meet with any political dissidents when he visits Beijing this weekend, and one of his top aides hinted that Chinese officials may have asked the secretary not to do so.

A week ago, the Chinese government rounded up several prominent dissidents, including Wei Jingsheng, the country’s best-known advocate of democracy. Wei was subsequently freed. There had been speculation that he or some other Chinese dissidents would meet with Christopher during the secretary’s visit to Beijing, which starts tonight.

By scuttling such a meeting, the Chinese government would keep the dissidents out of the spotlight and prevent them from gaining a platform from which to disseminate their views. Chinese leaders would also be able to maintain the outward appearance of unity and consensus that, even in times of internal struggle, they try to present to the world.

Asked at a news conference in Tokyo whether he will see any advocates of democracy during his Beijing trip, Christopher carefully replied, “I don’t have any plans to do so at the present time.” Several aides went further, saying no such meeting is in the works.

Such a session would be a groundbreaking event for any top American official in Beijing.

Former President George Bush invited Fang Lizhi, a Chinese dissident, to a Beijing banquet five years ago, but security police blocked Fang from attending. Christopher’s predecessor, Secretary of State James A. Baker III, backed off from meeting any dissidents on a Beijing stop in 1991 after Chinese officials visited the home of Dai Qing, a dissident whom Baker thought of meeting.

State Department spokesman Mike McCurry suggested that one Clinton Administration motive may be to avoid putting dissidents in jeopardy. He pointed to the example of Wei, who met in Beijing early last week with John Shattuck, assistant secretary of state for human rights, and was detained soon afterward.

But McCurry also acknowledged that there have been some recent diplomatic conversations between American and Chinese officials that he suggested involved the question of whether Christopher would meet with any dissidents. “They have raised some questions about issues in advance of the secretary’s arrival,” McCurry said. “They seem to have a great deal of concern about his schedule when he is there.”

The situation is delicate for Christopher and his entourage because they do not want to give the American public the impression that China is dictating the terms of Christopher’s itinerary in Beijing. “The schedule is our own to make,” said one American official. “We have no intention of following anyone else’s instructions or requests.”

Wei, originally an electrician, came to prominence during China’s “Democracy Wall” campaign of 1979. He was imprisoned for almost 15 years and was released last September, at a time when China was trying to improve its image during an unsuccessful attempt to land the Olympics in the year 2000.