In Shanghai, China Rounds Up More Dissidents Before French Leader’s Visit

China rounded up dissidents in Shanghai in advance of a visit Saturday by French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur. France’s foreign minister denounced the arrests as becoming “out of hand.”

About 10 police took Shanghai activist Bao Ge from his home Saturday morning, pushing and hitting him when he refused to leave, friends said. Police gave no reason for detaining him and showed no warrant, they said.

A day earlier, police picked up another dissident, Wang Fuchen, from his apartment. He had not returned home Saturday.

China has been under increasing pressure from the West to improve its human rights conditions, but the Beijing government has resisted. Dissidents also were detained in advance of Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s visit in March.

In Washington on Saturday, the White House called on Chinese officials to immediately release dissidents incarcerated “for the peaceful expression of their views.”

“We strongly support the right of these advocates of peaceful change to exercise their internationally recognized human rights,” Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said in a statement.

Myers expressed concern about China’s reluctance to provide information about the status and location of detainees. She said the human rights issues are “of crucial importance” to the Clinton Administration.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe also criticized the detentions. “That’s enough,” he said angrily after arriving in Shanghai. “It’s starting to get out of hand.”

He later said Chinese authorities had “assured us there have been no arrests of dissidents in the past few hours.”