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

(UPDATES with reax to Chinese warning to Hong Kong. Pictures)

by Richard Ingham

HONG KONG, Oct 15 (AFP) - Human-rights campaigners reacted with resignation Tuesday after Beijing made it clear that from next July, Hong Kong would no longer be a staging post for pro-democracy activists fleeing China.

Since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, between 490 and 800 people, according to the various estimates, have been smuggled into Hong Kong by "Yellowbird," an exfiltration network run by activists and their sympathisers.

Most of them are then discreetly flown to countries in the West, although several dozen remain in the British territory.

The latest beneficiary was Wang Xizhe, 47, a veteran campaigner who was whisked to Hong Kong at the weekend and requested asylum in the United States, fearing persecution for co-authoring a letter demanding Tibetan independence.

Wang was put on a flight to California overnight Monday, the government-run radio here said.

Beijing reacted with anger Tuesday, accusing Hong Kong and the United States of encouraging "illegal emigration" and warning China's judicial deparments would seek to bring "Wang Xizhe and his co-plotters to justice."

After the territory's handover to Beijing next July 1, "Hong Kong will become an international financial, economic and trade centre," said foreign ministry spokesman Shen Guofang. "It will not become a centre for other things."

The Hong Kong government and the US consulate remained tightlipped about the stern response, but human-rights activists said the outlook was clearly bleak for the territory's future as a safe haven.

"It's very clear the Chinese government just wants to use Hong Kong to make money," said Han Donfang, a Chinese labour activist who lives in Hong Kong after his passport was confiscated by the mainland authorities.

"After July 1, I'm sure that Hong Kong will not accept any further political refugees."

Democrat legislator Emily Lau said, "I guess that while the British are still here, it will still be possible" to bring dissidents out via Hong Kong.

"But after the transfer of sovereignty, this window will be closed. The administration will be directly under the control of China."

Tung Chee-hwa, a leading candidate to become chief executive, succeeding the colonial governor, said he expected the future Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong to have extradition arrangements with China.

"Whatever one does, it must be in the interests of the Hong Kong people," he said.

Dissidents who are sneaked into the territory usually have their cases put forward to the local government by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Movement in China -- pro-democracy campaigners who, some fear, will face instant persecution after the handover.

The government then discreetly urges Western consulates and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to accept cases it considers meritorious.

When an application is accepted, the dissident is put aboard a flight from Kai Tak airport -- driven directly to the plane to avoid the media and other curious eyes.

Some of the biggest names from the 1989 pro-democracy movement -- Wu'er Kaixi, Chai Ling and Li Lu -- have started a new life this way.

Others have included Wan Runnan, head of the Stone computer corporation, and Yan Jaiqi, head of a think-tank which had been giving advice to disgraced former party secretary Zhao Ziyang.

One dissident source suggested Beijing's sharp response Tuesday was triggered by the blaze of publicity surrounding Wang's escape. His arrival in Hong Kong broke on the local media on Sunday.

Others wondered whether Beijing may acquiesce in -- or even covertly back -- the Hong Kong conduit in order to ease agitation at home.

Dissidents living abroad are far less glamorous to the media, and far less influential over opinion in China, than those who stay put.