Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, October 13, 1996

LONDON, Oct 11 (AFP) - Amnesty International expressed concern Friday at what it called "growing official paranoia" in China, after Beijing tightened its screws on two Tiananmen-era dissidents.

"Recent reports from China signal increased repression and growing official paranoia about any form of dissent," it said in a statement issued by its world secretariat in London.

"Trying Wang Dan secretly and rushing Liu Xiaobo to a labour camp without trial runs counter the Chinese authorities claim that they are trying to make progress on human rights," it said.

"Wang and Liu's only 'crime' was to peacefully exercise their right to freedom of speech and association, which are guaranteed by China's Constitution," Amnesty said.

Wang, 26, a student hero of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, faces charges of "counter-revolutionary crimes" that could result in his imprisonment from five to seven years, his family has said.

He was arrested on May 21, 1995 after he signed two human rights petitions. Liu was arrested at his Beijing home early Tuesday and sentenced without trial to a re-education through labor camp the same afternoon for writing a letter in support of Tibetan self-determination, his wife said.

"The growing incidence of arbitrary detention shows the way in which China's own laws are flouted to suit political needs," said Amnesty International, which has been focusing on China in the past year.

"This deeply undermines the efforts undertaken by China's legislature and other institutions to strengthen respect for the law in China... The authorities have to show what they mean when they speak of progress on human rights," it said.