Published by: World Tibet Network News Issue ID: 97/10/23
by Carole Landry
WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (AFP) - Ratcheting up the pressure ahead of next week's summit, the United States said Monday it would be "delighted" if China released prominent dissidents soon.
The State Department also reiterated that relations between Washington and Beijing will never fully bloom without progress on human rights.
While Washington has repeatedly called for the release of prominent dissidents Wang Dan and Wei Jingsheng, the State Department reiterated the demand with particular fervor in the run-up to the October 29 meeting here.
"Those gentlemen -- Mr Wang Dan and Mr Wei Jingsheng -- should be released as soon as possible," said State Department spokesman James Rubin.
"We would be delighted if they were released as soon as possible," he added.
Wei and Wang, China's most famous dissidents, are both serving long prison terms for allegedly attempting to overthrow the communist government.
The Chinese Justice Ministry hinted in September that medical parole may be possible for the dissidents, and a Chinese official questioned in Beijing on Monday left open that possibility.
"Every year, the judiciary departments grant medical parole to more than 10,000 people and they will continue to do so in the future for humanitarian reasons," he said, on the condition of anonymity.
President Bill Clinton is putting his personal prestige on the line by hosting Chinese President Jiang Zemin during the first official visit by a Chinese head of state since the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen square.
For the US administration, a gesture from Beijing in favor of human rights would help Clinton deflect criticism that he is cozying up to a regime with a long record of brutal repression.
"We will never be able to have the full potential of our relationship with China realized so long as we have these kind of human rights problems between us," Rubin said.
The release of the dissidents would "be an important signal of Chinese willingness to deal with these concerns," he said.
The State Department's top expert on proliferation, Robert Einhorn, and Gary Samore, from the national security council, traveled to Beijing over the weekend to help prepare the summit, the White House said.
Jiang starts his state visit -- the first since late Chinese president Li Xiannian in 1985 -- on October 26 in Hawaii and will travel on to the historic city of Williamsburg, Virginia before arriving in Washington a day ahead of the summit meeting.
He will then visit Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Los Angeles before heading back to China on November 2.
Throughout his US visit, Jiang is expected to face large protests over everything from Tibet to labor conditions and the emprisonment of dissidents, who are well-known here.
Wang Dan, 27, headed the list of the most wanted students who led the demonstrations in Tiananmen square that were crushed by the army in June 1989.
He was condemned on October 1996 to 11 years in prison for "conspiracy to overthrow the government."
Wei Jingsheng, 47, is a veteran Chinese political prisoner and has enjoyed only six months of freedom in the past 18 years. He was condemned in December 1995 to 14 years in prison for sedition.
Considered the father of Chinese dissidence, he was one of the prime movers behind the first anti-government movement in 1978-79 known as the Beijing Spring.
