|
Attempted to Register Political Party During Clinton Visit
China Dissident Detained
At least six dissidents have been arrested since Wednesday.
Click here for more on China
|
|
|
More than 1,000 Peking University students break through a barricade to participate in a book donation ceremony, while police were arresting a democracy activist.
(Bobby Yip/AP Photo)
|
By Elaine Kurtenbach
The Associated Press
B E I J I N G, June 29
Chinese police detained a democracy activist
today who was trying to set up an opposition political partythe
latest dissident rounded up during President Clintons visit to
China.
Plainclothes police showed up at Wang Youcais home in eastern
Hangzhou city this afternoon and took him away three hours later,
according to dissident groups in the United States and Hong Kong.
Having been turned away by officials Friday, Wang had planned to
try again today to register his China Democracy Party with
provincial authorities, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of
Human Rights and Democratic Movement said.
Tiananmen Square Leader
The application marked the first time Chinese dissidents have
openly tried to gain government approval for an opposition party,
the Washington-based Free China Movement reported.
Wang, a student leader in the democracy demonstrations in
Tiananmen Square in 1989, was at least the sixth dissident taken
into custody since Wednesday.
Wang spent more than 2 years in prison for helping lead the 1989 protests
and has had repeated run-ins with police ever since.
Clinton Objects to Arrests
His detention came as Clinton left Beijing for Shanghai, Chinas
financial center. Clinton took up the previous arrests with
President Jiang Zemin, but Jiang afterward defended the police
action as important for security.
In China, Clinton has emphasized the need for the government to
allow more freedom. Addressing students and faculty at Peking
University today, he called a freer society necessary to
maintaining economic prosperity.
However, Clinton has refused appeals by Chinese democracy and
human rights campaigners to meet with a dissident.
Meeting Urged with Ziyang
In the latest such appeal, 125 Chinese dissidents called on
Clinton to meet former Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang, who was
ousted by party elders for resisting the 1989 military crackdown.
Zhao has lived under house arrest since being purged nine years
ago and remains a potent symbol of a more tolerant era in Chinese
politics. Last week, he reportedly sent party leaders a letter
urging a reassessment of the protests.
In an open letter released today, the 125 dissidents said Zhao
would have pushed democratic reforms together with economic ones
and in the process corruption and unemployment would have been less
severe.
Four of the six dissidents detained in the past week were
arrested in Xian, Clintons first stop, and released after the
president left.
Barred from Reporters
Authorities in Guilin have told the family of democracy
campaigner Li Xiaolong that he will not be freed until after
Clinton tours the southern city Thursday.
Also today, The Los Angeles Times reported that a Chinese
dissident jailed during the 1989 crackdown was warned by security
officials not to speak to foreign journalists during Clintons
visit.
I was told by the police I have to refuse to give any
interview to any foreign journalists, said Bao Tong, the
highest-ranking advocate for democracy to emerge from the ranks of
the Chinese Communist Party.
Bao told the Times he felt compelled to cancel a meeting in
Beijing with one of its reporters. He did speak to the newspaper by
telephone.
Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,
or redistributed.
|
|
WORLD HEADLINES
|
|