The New York Times

Wednesday, December 6, 2000

Two Pro-Democracy Leaders in China Sentenced to Prison

By ERIK ECKHOLM

BEIJING, Dec. 6 - Two years after a crackdown began on a short-lived pro-democracy party, two more of its leaders were sentenced to prison today, bringing the number of party members imprisoned to at least 30.

These latest punishments illustrate the Communist leadership's determination to stamp out all remnants of political opposition as they prepare for the risky opening of China's economy to global competition.

One organizer of the party, the China Democracy Party, Wang Zechen, 51, was sentenced to six years on charges of subverting state power, according to a human rights monitor in Hong Kong. Another former leader, Wang Wenjiang, a 46-year-old lawyer, was given a four-year sentence in the same court in the northeastern city of Anshan where both men lived.

Wang Zechen was lauded as a hero in the late 1970's for his defiance of the "Gang of Four" - the ultra-radical Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong's wife, who were blamed for the worst turmoil and persecutions of the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976.

He received a death sentence in 1975 after he publicly criticized a nephew of Mao who was a major supporter of the Gang of Four. Then in September 1976, Mao died and within a month more moderate leaders arrested the Gang of Four and their close associates. Many people like Mr. Wang who tried to speak out earlier were "rehabilitated" and praised.

For the next 20 years, Mr. Wang kept a low profile, running a small shop in his home city of Anshan. But in early 1998, he joined up with hundreds of others to promote a new, unregistered democratic party, becoming the chairman of the Liaoning province branch.

The campaigners were pushing the limits during an apparent easing of political controls in the months surrounding President Clinton's high-profile visit to China that year. For several months, the security agencies seemed to sit back as long-quiet activists spoke up around the country and branches of the new party multiplied.

The illusory thaw was ended in no uncertain terms in late 1998, when three of the party's best-known leaders were arrested for subversion and sentenced to terms of 11, 12 and 13 years, respectively. Dozens more organizers were arrested in the months that followed and since then no political organizing outside party auspices has been tolerated.

After several brief detentions during their year of defiant organizing, Wang Zecheng and Wang Wenjiang, who are not related, were both arrested for good in June 1999. In late November they were put on trial for subversion in separate proceedings of the same court, but for unknown reasons their sentences were issued only today, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Hong Kong.

A founding member of the democracy party, Wu Yilong, 32, has been held in solitary confinement for the last seven months, the Hong Kong center also reported. He is being punished, the center said, because he started a hunger strike when prison officials did not permit his wife to make her monthly visit, supposedly permitted under regulations.

Mr. Wu, who had traveled around China recruiting members to the alternative party, was sentenced last year to 11 years in prison.