FEE Review 30-01-1997

LEADING DISSIDENT DENOUNCES WEI

Well-known dissident Ren Wanding has made a vitriolic attack on Wei Jingsheng known abroad as the father of China's democracy movement. In a six-page open letter addressed to the Nobel Committee, among others, Ren denounces Wei as a megalomaniac who subscribes to undemocratic principles. Ren charges that Wei, a perennial frontrunner for the Nobel Peace Prize, speaks only for himself and not for China's fractious dissident mouvement, and that Wei's reputation for courage is undeserved. "It is not courageous to desh eggs upon a stone," he wrote.

Ren, founder of the outlawed China Human Rights League, served four years in prison after the 1978 Democracy Wall movement, where Wei also distinguished himself for eloquently demanding a "fifth modernization" democracy. Ren served another seven years following the 1989 Tiennanmen Square uprising. He was released last year. He denies any pressure from Beijing to denounce Wei. In December, a Beijing court sentenced Wei to 14 years in prison for "conspiring to subvert the government".