The New York Times

September 29, 1997

SPEAKING FOR CHINA'S SILENT VOICES

By Tong Yi

As the White House prepares to roll out the red carpet for President Jiang Zemin of China next month, China's most prominent dissident, Wei Jingsheng, is dying in prison. Mr. Wei has been there since 1994, the year President Clinton decided not to link most-favored-nation trading status with human rights conditions in China.

I am certain that Mr. Wei's predicament is directly tied to that decision. Indeed, I was present at a meeting that led to his arrest.

It was February 1994. Mr. Wei had just been released from prison after serving a 14¼ year sentence for writing and mounting pro-democracy posters. Because I was his interpreter and assistant, the American Embassy in Beijing called me to arrange a meeting between Mr. Wei and John Shattuck, the Assistant Secretary of State for human rights, who was in town on an official visit.

Two days later, Mr. Shattuck met with Mr. Wei in the coffee shop of a large hotel in Beijing. Six Chinese plainclothes police officers hovered nearby. During the one-hour meeting, Mr. Shattuck asked Mr. Wei to suggest how President Clinton should approach the issue of human, rights in China.

Mr. Wei replied, "The U.S. should be at least as firm in its position on human rights in China as the Chinese Government is."

Mr. Shattuck then went on to ask whether Mr. Wei thought the United States could best support human rights by supporting the Chinese democracy movement or by applying

direct pressure on the Chinese Government.

"Put pressure on the Chinese Government," Mr. Wei answered. That way, the Government would be less likely to crack down on the democracy movement.

Five days after this conversation, Mr. Wei was arrested. Shortly after I told the international media about his arrest, I too was detained.

Two months later in a detention camp, I heard an announcement over the prison loudspeakers that President Clinton had decided to grant most-favored-nation status to China. I said to myself, "Now Wei Jingsheng will never get out of prison."

Shortly thereafter, I was sentenced to two and a half years of "reeducation through labor" and sent to a labor camp near Wuhan, my home-town.

In December 1905 - after being held incommunicado for nearly 20 months - Mr. Wei was formally tried and sentenced to an additional 14 years in prison. Since then, President Jiang Zemin's Government has thrown one pro-democracy advocate after another into prison, among them Wang Dan, the Tiananmen Square student leader, and Liu Nianchun, a labor activist.

In its 1996 annual report on human rights, the United States State Department itself accurately described the problem. "All public dissent against the party and Government," the report concluded, "was effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, the imposition of prison terms, administrative detention, or house arrest."

So why is President Jiang being honored with a 21-gun salute and a state dinner at the White House, while the true champions of democracy and freedom in China - Wei Jingsheng, Wang Dan and thousands of others - remain in prison?

As a survivor of China's prison labor system, I know firsthand what it is like to be a citizen of a country that can arbitrarily strip you of your dignity. Simply because of my association with Mr. Wei, I was forced to work long hours under horrific conditions to sew garments sold for profit by the camp where I served my sentence. When I protested, I was beaten.

Even after my release from prison, I was subject to house arrest and denied the chance to find a job and live a normal life in my own country. Only through the tremendous efforts of many human rights organizations and concerned individuals in the United States do I find myself now living in New York, close to the Statue of Liberty that I have always admired from afar.

Having secured my own freedom, I feel an enormous obligation to try to prevent the slow murder of Wei Jingsheng. I knew that during his brief months of freedom, Mr. Wei rejected a Government offer to go into exile.

All he wants is to speak freely and safely in his own country. Instead, after Mr. Wei's nearly 18 years in Chinese prisons, his health has been virtually destroyed. He suffers from life-threatening heart and nervous system ailments.

He is kept in solitary confinement. He is not allowed to write, and his reading materials are restricted, His only contact with fellow prisoners is when they are encouraged to threaten or beat him. Indeed, he was severely beaten last June by prisoners who were incited by prison authorities.

The summit meeting with President Jiang offers President Clinton a chance to demonstrate that the best American ideals remain vital in his policies.

By demanding the release of Wei Jingsheng and all other political prisoners in China, President Clinton would be taking real action toward, encouraging the growth of a free and democratic China. He should let President Jiang know that America won't trust a Government that doesn't trust its own people.