CHINA EXPELS HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER

Beijing's action follows 15-year jail sentence

by Tony Walker

(The Financial Times, 25 August 1995)

Mr Harry Wu, the Chinese-born US human rights campaigner, was expelled from China yesterday hours after being sentenced to 15 years in jail for spying, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Early release from a Chinese jail for Mr. Wu removes a significant obstacle to improved Sino-Us relations. It could open the way for Mrs Hillary Clinton, the US president's wife, to attend a United Nations Women's Conference in Beijing next week and might also clear the way to a meeting later this year between President Bill Clinton and his Chinese counterpart, Mr Jiang Zemin, when the latter travels to the US for celebrations connected with the UN's 50th anniversary.

US officials in Washington were yesterday unable to confirm the Xinhua report, but an embassy official in Beijing said Mr Wu was on a plane to San Francisco. White House officials said no deal had been struck to trade Mr Wu's release from prison for Mrs Clinton's attendance at the Beijing conference. State Department officials said China would not want to be seen to have been pressurised into the decision.

Mr Peter Tarnoff, the US undersecretary of state and Mr Li Zhaoxing, vice foreign minister, are scheduled to meet in Beijing this weekend to try to restore working relations buffeted by arguments over Taiwan and human rights, Beijing was incensed by the US decision to allow a visit in June by Taiwan's president Lee Teng-hui.

Mr Wu, who served 19 years in Chinese prisons before leaving for the US In 1985, was sentenced In the People's Intermediate

Court in Wuhan, central China, in the presence of a US consular official. He had pleaded guilty to the espionage charges and waived the right of appeal. It had not been clear from the court's initial statement whether Mr Wu would have to serve some or all of his sentence before being deported.

A spokesman for the Wuhan court had said Mr Wu faced two possibilities. "If his attitude is good and he is well behaved, he could be released early and expelled," he said. "The other possibility is that he will be expelled after serving his 15 years."

Mr Wu had infuriated Beijing by helping organisations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation gather material on prison exports and the sale of organs of executed criminals. China has denied the allegations.

He was officially accused of "spying, illegally obtaining, buying and providing state secrets to overseas institutes, organisations, and persons, and of passing himself off as a government worker for deceptive activities".

The White House and the state department had urged Mr Wu's immediate release on humanitarian grounds, arguing, as they havefor several weeks, that his health was poor.