In Exile, Wei Remains a Force

Today China’s leading political dissident, Wei Jingsheng, is a free man in the United States, far from the homeland where he championed democracy despite a long and brutal imprisonment. Wei had always said that he would not leave China, but the fact is his views on political reform can be communicated better from outside his country.

Clearly the international community’s continued focus on the plight of Wei, 47, helped to create the pressure to free him. His release comes just two weeks after the summit between President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin and is the most dramatic result of that meeting. Was it perhaps a quid pro quo for better and more commercial ties with the United States? Washington denies making any such deal, but Clinton did press the issue of human rights at a press conference with Jiang, saying China was on the “wrong side of history.”

The release of Wei does not diminish the fact that countless other political dissidents still languish in Chinese prisons simply because they hold views contrary to those of the Beijing regime. China’s failure to abide by international covenants of human rights will continue to sully its stature.

Wei’s freedom is a symbol, inside and outside China, of the power of endurance, democracy and free speech. He has never given up his ideals and struggle, despite high blood pressure and a chronic heart condition for which treatment was denied during most of his 17 years behind prison walls.

Wei considers himself first and foremost a Chinese patriot. With today’s technology, geography need not limit him as an agent of political reform. His words can reach his countrymen through Radio Free Asia, much as they did through his famous mural/poster, “The Fifth Modernization: Democracy,” which he put on a Beijing wall reserved for public debate 19 years ago. He was not silenced then. He will not be silenced now.