China Demands End to ‘Vicious Actions’ of U.S. Over Jailed Dissident

The Chinese government hit back at Washington on Thursday for criticizing its jailing of dissident Wei Jingsheng, demanding an immediate end to “vicious actions” in a new round of Sino-U.S. acrimony over human rights.

“We strongly condemn these malicious moves by the U.S. side, which constitute a serious infringement upon China’s sovereignty and interference in China’s internal affairs,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Chen Jian told a news briefing.

“We demand that the U.S. side . . . immediately stop . . . vicious actions that have seriously encroached upon China’s sovereignty and interfered in its internal affairs,” he said.

The broadside was directed at White House and congressional criticism of Wei’s prosecution, as well as of Beijing’s policy on Tibet.

Wei, a 1995 Nobel Peace Prize nominee widely regarded as the father of China’s modern democracy movement, was convicted Wednesday of conspiring to subvert the government and jailed for 14 years.

A White House spokesman swiftly condemned China and urged it to show clemency, saying Wei’s trial aimed to “silence the voice of democracy.”

In Hong Kong, which reverts to China in mid-1997, protesters demanding that Beijing free Wei scuffled with police outside China’s representative office Thursday.

Shouting “Free Wei Jingsheng now” and “Wei is innocent,” nearly 200 demonstrators attempted to push past police lines outside the office of the New China News Agency, China’s de facto embassy.