jshen@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Jun Shen) (01/29/91)
Leading democracy activist gets 7-year term in China, Student leader Wang Dan sentenced to 4 years The Sunday San Jose Mercury News, from the New York Times. Janaury 27, 1991 BEIJING - A Chinese court Saturday sentenced the nation's leading human rights advocate to seven years in prison and its foremost student leader to a four-year term for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement" during the Tiananmen democracy movement. Six other democratic militants were sentenced to terms ranging from two to five years, the official New China News Agency said, while 66 others were apparently released. By Chinese standards, the sentences were relatively lenient, as counterrevolutionary offenses can being the death penalty. "The court, after hearings, confirmed that some of the eight defendants, resorting to various means, wantonly conducted public agitation to subvert the people's government and the socialist system during the 1989 turmoil and rebellion, and others made Molotov cocktails to attack the armed forces enforcing the martial law and helping safeguard public order," the press agency said. Ren Wanding, an accountant and determined spokesman for human rights, received the seven-year sentence, the stiffest handed out in the latest wave of trials. Ren played a relatively minor role in the 1989 democracy movement, but the leadership regards him a troublemaker because he refused to admit wrongdoing and because he has a history of agitation for democracy. Wang Dan, the Beijing University student who was No. 1 on a most-wanted list published after the crackdown, was sentenced to four years in prison. The press agency said he had committed serious crimes but showed repentence. Another student leader, Guo Haifeng, was also sentenced to four years. Bao Zunxin, a historian and advocate of greater democracy, was sentenced to five years. A person named Yao Junling, whose background is unknown, was sentenced to two years in prison. Ren was a leader of the 1978-79 Democracy Wall movement, and while others called for democracy it was Ren who focused on human rights. His efforts got him a four-year spell in prison, from 1979 to 1983. Prisoners are normallly expected to write off self-criticisms while in their cells; instead, Ren wrote a two-volume attack on the government, etched painstakingly with the nib of a pen on his supply of toilet paper. In the fall of 1988, Ren emerged in public again to call for greater democracy and human rights. He acknowledged the risk to himself and his wife and daughter in an interview at the time. Ren was arrested shortly after the crackdown June 4, 1989, and since then has not been allowed to see his wife and daughter, now 14. In explaining the sentence, the New China News Agency said Ren "was found guilty of grave crimes and showed no repentence." Among the 66 who apparently was released was Liu Xiaobo, a prominent literary critic and spokesman for democracy. Liu's release was a surprise, as the newspapes had published vituperative essays about him. "The sentences were very light, especially for Liu Xiaobo and Wang Dan," said a diplomat in Beijing. "I think that's very much die to their consideration of their relationships with the U.S."