Published by: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, October 16 1996

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (AFP) - The United States has granted Chinese dissident Wang Xizhe permission to temporarily enter the country, the State Department said Tuesday.

Wang, who fled China through Hong Kong at the weekend, is expected to arrive shortly, spokesman Nicholas Burns said.

The spokesman described Wang as a "noted champion of human rights" and as "someone the United States believes should not be under the threat of arrest in China."

In Hong Kong, a government-run radio said Wang was put on a flight to California overnight Monday.

Burns brushed aside Chinese criticism that the United States was encouraging dissidents to leave China, saying "this individual has a right to come here."

He cited a section of a US immigration law that grants Attorney General Janet Reno the authority to give foreign nationals permission to enter the country temporarily for emergency reasons.

Wang had been on the run since last Tuesday when fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to a term in a labour camp. The two had signed a joint letter demanding independence for Tibet.

A former factory worker in the southern city of Guangzhou, Wang was released on parole on February 3 1993 after serving nearly 12 years of a 14-year term for sedition, forming a "counter-revolutionary group" and spreading "counter-revolutionary propaganda."

He was smuggled into Hong Kong on Saturday.