Wang Dan Appears OK, but More Tests Needed

Less than 24 hours after his release from a Chinese prison, prominent political dissident Wang Dan was admitted to a Detroit hospital Sunday for a thorough medical evaluation whose initial tests were positive but left a question mark over the democracy activist’s health.

President Clinton, attending the Summit of the Americas in Santiago, Chile, was described as “enormously pleased” by Wang’s release. “It’s something we had been working for for quite some time,” his national security advisor, Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger, told reporters.

Clinton is scheduled to make a state visit to China in June.

In a statement addressed to “dear friends” and released Sunday evening through the nongovernmental organizations Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China, Wang expressed “my deepest appreciation for the concern and sympathy you have shown me over the last few years.” The statement expressly thanked the U.S. government for pressing for his release.

“At the same time, I greatly hope that those democracy activists who continue to be imprisoned in China can soon obtain their freedom,” he said. The statement said that Wang planned to hold a news conference in New York on Tuesday.

Wang, who arrived in Detroit aboard a Northwest Airlines flight direct from Beijing, entered Henry Ford Hospital under his own power but was described initially by the facility’s chief medical officer, Dr. Thomas Royer, as “very tired.”

After a complete physical examination Sunday afternoon, Royer said that Wang, 28, was suffering from a persistent cough and frequent headaches but appeared otherwise to be in good health.

“He will receive further tests for these complaints” today, hospital spokeswoman Julie Baumkel said. She said he would undergo a neurological examination, a vision test and a magnetic resonance imaging test--a soft-tissue scan more commonly known as an MRI--all in an attempt to better determine the cause of the headaches. His cough would also receive additional treatment, she said.

Wang has reportedly had frequent and severe headaches for several months, and family members in Beijing have expressed worry about a possible brain tumor.

Another leading Chinese political dissident, Wei Jingsheng, spent five days at the same hospital after being released from a Chinese prison in November.

Wei and Wang were freed under nearly identical conditions--officially released on medical grounds to receive treatment abroad, then sent via U.S. commercial airliner to Detroit. Both were reportedly told they would be sent back to prison if they returned to China.

Wang served 3 1/2 years in prison for his role in helping lead the protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989, then was jailed again in 1995 and sentenced the following year to an 11-year term for “subversion.”

At the time of his release, he was easily the best-known political prisoner in the country.

While Wang’s release was obviously timed to improve the atmosphere in advance of Clinton’s trip, administration officials were quick to claim it as a vindication of the U.S. policy of attempting to engage China in a dialogue on human rights while pressing to expand a fast-growing commercial relationship.

Berger said the Clinton administration is working with China on a number of other prisoner releases, but he admitted that “there’s still a long way to go.”