China Paroles Journalist Ahead of Rights Meeting

A prominent Chinese journalist was freed from jail Monday in a surprise release that may have been timed to counter criticism abroad of China’s human rights record.

Gao Yu’s parole for medical treatment came ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Commission’s annual meeting next month. Human rights campaigners and members of the U.S. Congress want China censured at the meeting for an aggressive crackdown on dissent that began late last year.

Gao, whose six-year sentence on charges of leaking state secrets was not due to end until October, returned to her home in Beijing at about midday, said her son, Zhao Meng.

Under the terms of her parole, Gao could not talk to reporters, her son said. Gao, who turned 55 on Feb. 3, suffers from high blood pressure, heart disease and kidney problems, her son said.

“Her health is not good,” he said.

China has a record of sometimes releasing prominent prisoners at times when its human rights practices are under attack. In 1993, when human rights were an issue in Beijing’s bid to host the Olympic Games, China released its most prominent dissident, Wei Jingsheng. It lost the games to Sydney. Wei was detained again the following year.

In the latest crackdown, six members of a would-be opposition party have been jailed, and the three most influential leaders have received sentences of 11 years or more. Other dissidents also have been jailed, detained and questioned.

A former deputy editor of a now-defunct economics weekly, Gao was arrested Oct. 2, 1993, two days before she had planned to go to New York to become a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She was tried in secret and convicted, apparently for writing about Communist Party politics for Hong Kong publications.