Bo Chi <chi@vlsi> (02/15/91)
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(Designed by CND staff Wu Fang)
* C h i n a N e w s D i g e s t *
(News General)
February 15, 1990
Table of Contents # of Lines
News Briefs ............................................................ 9
1. China Releases 2 Dissidients, Including Former U.S. Student ........ 42
2. ``Fair'' Trials in China ........................................... 66
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News Briefs
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From: dongqing wei <USERGNPI@UBCMTSG.BITNET>, Feb. 13
According to CTV news an official from Canadian Embassy in Beij-
ing tried to enter the court room to hear Wang and Chen's sen-
tence but was not aloowed to enter. Even the interview with CTV
crew was disturbed by plicemen. The official said Canadian
government concerns about the human rights situation of China,
they doubt that the trials are fair.
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1. China Releases 2 Dissidients, Including Former U.S. Student
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From chenh@ucs.indiana.edu
Thu Feb 14 01:39 GMT 1991 (AP)
---
BEIJING - Authorities have freed a journalist and a former
U.S. college student jailed in Shanghai for their roles in 1989's
democracy movement, a government official said Wednesday.
Reporter Zhang Weiguo and Yang Wei, a former University of
Arizona student, were freed Tuesday.
That's the same day a Beijing court sentenced two longtime
democracy activists to 13 years imprisonment.
The timing appeared part of the Chinese government's policy
of announcing lenient treatment for some activists while at the
same time hand- ing down stiff sentences for others.
The policy appears aimed at soften- ing foreign and domestic
criticism.
Since Jan. 5, the government has released 71 activists and
sentenced 25 to prison.
Zhang and Yang were released because they have ''shown under-
standing of their crimes,'' said Guo Qiyuan of the Shanghai
Foreign Affairs Bureau.
There was no elaboration.
Yang's name was specifically mentioned by U.S. officials
seeking the release of political prisoners, a diplomat in Beijing
said.
Yang, 35, has a master's degree in molecular biology from
Arizona. While in the United States, he wrote for a U.S.-based
dissident magazine, ''China Spring.''
Zhang, 45, was head of the World Economic Herald's Beijing
bureau.
The paper, one of China's most liberal, is now banned.
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2. ``Fair'' Trials in China
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From: Zuofeng Li < zuofeng@pollux.wustl.edu >
Source: UPI, Feb. 14, 1991
By SARAH LUBMAN
BEIJING -- China released selective details Thursday of trials of
Tiananmen Square dissidents recently sentenced to stiff prison
terms, portraying the closed prosecutions as fair in an apparent
bid to deflect foreign criticism. A report by the state-
run Xinhua news agency described the Feb. 5- 12 trials of four
prominent dissidents as ``public'' and said family members of two
defendants attended them.
A small number of handpicked Chinese observers sat in on the tri-
als, from which foreign observers were banned. Relatives of at
least one other dissident tried in recent weeks, human rights
advocate Ren Wanding, received no notification from the court.
Xinhua released the full report only on its overseas Chinese-
language wire, said a Xinhua spokesman. A condensed version of
the story was carried on Xinhua's English-language wire.
The official account of the trials came even as jailed dissident
Chen Ziming requested an appeal to the Supreme Court over his
13-year prison sentence, friends of Chen's family said.
Chen and his lawyer were angered by the court's refusal to give
more proof of the charges against him, while Chen's relatives
were told the hearing would continue at an undisclosed date and
were shocked when the court abruptly announced the verdict the
following day instead, one source said.
The source said the court agreed to respond to Chen's appeal by
Feb. 21.
Chen, 39, is one of two veteran dissidents sentenced Tuesday to
13 years imprisonment for the ``counterrevolutionary'' crime of
sedition. The government views Chen and fellow activist Wang
Juntao as ``black hands'' behind the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
The Xinhua report denied the court handed down verdicts based on
the defendants' attitudes, reflecting a degree of official con-
cern over the public image of China's highly politicized legal
system.
Western governments and human rights groups assailed the trials
as unfair prosecutions with preordained outcomes. The court
imposed the heaviest sentences on older dissidentse described as
unrepentant.
An unidentified judge declared that Chen Ziming's ``unwillingness
to show repentance'' did not influenced the court's decision,
Xinhua said.
``The prosecutor demanded severe punishment for Chen Ziming based
on his attitude, but that cannot be regarded as the legal base
for strict punishment,'' the judge said. ``Therefore we did not
punish him severely.
Chen was defiant in court and refused to acknowledge the charges
against him, family friends said.
China's official media trumpeted prison sentences from two to 13
years to Tiananmen Square dissidents as ``lenient.'' Under
Chinese law, serious political crimes are punishable by death in
cases considered especially grave.
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