During the US House debate on PNTR to China, Congressman Robert Matsui
                 somehow got a Statement issued by Mr. Nie Minzhi in support of giving
                 China human-rights-hussle-free PNTR. At that time, this was something
                 quite unusual, because all leaders of the Chinese pro-democracy
                 movement, like Wei Jingsheng, Wang Xizhe, and Harry Wu opposed
                 unconditional PNTR.

                 Congressman Robert Matsui's office saw Mr. Nie's statement as a useful
                 piece so his office spread it via FAX to most offices on the Capital
                 Hill.

                 The truth is, since most of the top CDP leaders in Zhejiang have been
                 put in jail, Mr. Nie's statement in support of PNTR could hardly be
                 representative of anybody.

                 Now he has leanrt his lessons in dealing with the communists. Let's see
                 what US politicians like Congressman Robert Matsui could learn from this
                 incident.

                 Richard Long
                 editor, VIP Reference
                 www.BigNews.ORG

                 China Jails Elderly CDP Member, Sparking Fears Of New Crackdown

                 BEIJING, Sep 27, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China has jailed a
                 70-year-old member of the outlawed China Democracy Party (CDP) without trial,
                 the CDP and a human rights group said Wednesday, expressing fears of a new
                 crackdown on dissent.

                 Nie Minzhi, a member of the CDP from southeastern Zhejiang province, was
                 sentenced to one year in a labor camp in Zhejiang, the Washington-based Free
                 China Movement said in a statement faxed to Beijing.

                 Hu Jiangxia, the wife of CDP's founding member Wang Youcai, told AFP Nie was
                 taken from his home Tuesday and sent to the camp with no explanation given to
                 his family.

                 Under China's administrative detention laws, police can send anybody to a
                 "re-education through labor" camp for up to three years without trial.

                 "He is more than 70 years old. He is retired. Before that, he worked in a
                 court in Hangzhou and after Wang Youcai was sentenced he became a CDP member
                 and did a lot of work," Hu said.

                 "What he has done and said was within the law. I'm worried about his health."

                 The CDP infuriated the Communist government in mid-1998 by trying to formally
                 register as an opposition party within the framework of the law.

                 Since then, the government has rounded up dozens of CDP members, including
                 Wang and fellow leaders Xu Wenli and Qin Yongmin, and sentenced them on
                 charges of subversion to prison sentences of up to 13 years.

                 The Communist Party has held an iron grip on power since 1949 and allows no
                 challenge.

                 Human rights groups and Western governments described last year as the most
                 draconian crackdown on dissent since the Chinese government sent tanks to
                 crush the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement.

                 Nie's arrest comes a week after the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to grant
                 China permanent normal trade relations status (PNTR), as part of a bilateral
                 trade agreement signed in November.

                 The move was strongly opposed by human rights groups and exiled dissidents
                 who said the United States was giving away vital leverage on human rights,
                 but it was supported by the CDP.

                 Stronger economic ties between China and the United States would result in
                 more opportunity to influence China and to monitor human rights conditions,
                 the CDP said.

                 But it urged U.S. officials and the international community to continue
                 pressuring China to improve its human rights record.

                 "The sentence of Nie Minzhi -- a CDP leader -- is ample testimony to the fact
                 that the U.S. Congress and President Clinton have been hoodwinked by the
                 rulers in Beijing," Wang Xizhe of the CDP was quoted as saying by the Free
                 China Movement.

                 "Only days after the passage of PNTR by Congress, Mr. Nie, a supporter of
                 PNTR for China, was sentenced without trial ... Is this the kind of
                 improvement in human rights conditions that Mr. Clinton had in mind when he
                 claimed PNTR would improve conditions for dissent in China?" ((c) 2000 Agence
                 France Presse)