U.S. Hopes China Will Free Dissidents

U.S. officials remain hopeful that China will release one or more of its prominent political dissidents before President Jiang Zemin visits Washington next week for the first formal Sino-U.S. summit in 12 years.

“The Chinese have taken the position this is a legal question that has to be resolved by the Ministry of Justice,” a senior official with the U.S. Embassy said here Monday, “but they don’t foreclose the possibility of certain dissidents being released on medical parole.”

China’s two best-known dissidents, political essayist and democracy advocate Wei Jingsheng, 47, and former student political leader Wang Dan, 27, are serving long prison terms. Wei, who was released in 1993 after 14 1/2 years in prison, was sentenced again in late 1995 to 14 years for allegedly attempting to overthrow the government. Wang, who was freed in 1993 after four years in prison, was sentenced to 11 more years in 1996 on charges of subversion.

The families of both claim the two men are in poor health.

The senior embassy official said the release of the two dissidents would help improve the reception the Chinese president will receive in Washington, where at least nine groups have already applied to demonstrate against the Beijing regime.

“We have indicated to them that one of the most effective things that could be done to help neutralize the human rights question would be the release of some dissidents,” the U.S. official said.

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In an interview with Time magazine last week, Jiang said Wei and Wang are not dissidents but common criminals who violated Chinese laws. One of the allegations against Wang, a leader in the 1989 demonstrations in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, was that he took a correspondence course in political science from UC Berkeley.

But Jiang admitted that neither man represents “much of a threat to China’s security and stability.”

Meanwhile, a Chinese official on Monday appeared to leave the door open for a possible release on medical grounds. At key points in the U.S.-China relationship, Beijing has used medical discharge as a means of releasing dissidents. Such releases, however, generally also require that the dissident leave China, ostensibly to seek medical care abroad.

Wang’s family has said he is prepared to leave China. Given similar opportunities in the past, however, Wei has steadfastly refused to leave the country.

The Chinese official said any releases would be a matter for the Chinese courts to decide.