Perplexity on Wei Case: "Who?" a chinese asks

Concern abroad mystifies a Beijing Caller

by Seth Feison

The New York Times - International Herald Tribune

Monday, November 24, 1997

BEIJING - Tan Lifeng was a persistent caller. He left a dozen messages and then called again, insisting when he finally reached a reporter that he could reveal a case that involved a major violation of human rights in China. As Mr. Tan told his story, however, it gradually became clear that he was more agitated about a failed business venture that he said had been spoiled by low-level police corruption than about anything like free speech or improper imprisonment. Because he had thrown the term "human rights" into the conversation so liberally, though, it was hard to resist asking him a question: "What do you of Wei Jingsheng?" As a principal symbol of China's human-rights struggle, Mr. Wei made headlines around the world last week when Chinese authorities released him after 18 years as a prisoner of conscience. Ostensibly, Mr. Wei was put on flight to the United States so he could get medical treatment. But his release was really a concession to international pressure. At the same time, he is a political f

igure so powerful that Beijing's leaders are glad to see him in exile. Yet Mr. Wei's name is unknown to most people in his homeland. Mr. Tan, 28, who is trying to succeed by selling chemical cleansing agents, wants only good for his nation but said when asked that he did not trust the Communist Party leadership to deliver it. Yet he did not know Mr. Wei's name and was mystified as to why foreigners would care about a Chinese dissident when most Chinese did not. It is striking how little consciousness or interest there is among ordinary Chinese in the larger notion of political or legal rights, or in political prisoners such as Mr. Wet who fight for the rule of law and democracy. The reason lies partly in the fact that China is still a poor country and that what civic education exists is dominated by Communist Party authorities. Centuries of Chinese tradition have encouraged people to be respectful of authority figures, even when they are not deserving, rather than challenge them openly. Leaders of the Chines

e Communist Party maintain that human rights should be defined in terms as basic as the right to be properly fed, clothed and housed. Many Chinese seem to agree. There is nevertheless a well-educated elite in Beijing and other large cities, many of whom do care and keep track of dissidents. Mr. Wei himself, speaking in New York on Friday, said prospects for democratic reform in China were "excellent." Sending Mr. Wei into exile relieves China's leadership of one headache. It is unclear whether Mr. Wei will be enough of an effective campaigner outside China to become a headache of a different sort or whether he will slip into obscurity as some other democratic activists who left China have. Then again, Mr. Wei has never been famous within China. It was his silent presence, in prison, that cast such a long shadow.