China detains another veteran dissident

China detains another veteran dissident

BEIJING (Reuter): Police have detained another of China's veteran democracy campaigners, Xu Wenli, who was paroled last May after 12 years in prison, his wife said yesterday.

Xu, who is about 50, was detained at his Beijing home early on Thursday and interrogated overnight, then allowed some five minutes' freedom yesterday morning before being detained again, she said.

She said police had held Xu on a 24-hour investigation warrant then re-arrested him on another.

Xu's detention comes less than a week after police seized Wei Jingsheng, known as the father of China's democracy movement, and said they were investigating "new crimes" he allegedly committed while on parole following his September release from prison.

The new detentions mark an increasingly tough line by Beijing against its small dissident community as debate rages with the United States over the link between human rights and China's preferential U.S. trade privileges.

The scene was tense outside Xu's home in southwest Beijing on Friday.

One of the many uniformed and plainclothes police officers in and outside the walled compound forcibly stopped Xu's wife, Kang Tong, from speaking to western journalists by dragging her away with his hand clasped over her mouth.

It was not known where Xu was being held nor why police wanted to interrogate him.

Unlike Wei, Xu was not known to have engaged in any political activities since his release.

A Beijing Public Security official reached by telephone said he had no knowledge of Xu's detention nor of any charges against him.

Five western journalists who had gathered at Xu's home to investigate reports of his arrest were questioned and briefly prevented from leaving.

Police accused the reporters of "not respecting Chinese law" and said they did not have permission to enter the walled compound that contains Xu's apartment.

Wei and Xu both served long prison terms for agitating for political liberalization during the ill-fated "Democracy Wall" demonstrations of 1979.

Xu, who served 12 years of a 15-year sentence, was freed last May.

Coming just weeks before U.S. President Bill Clinton's decision to extend China's low-tariff Most Favored Nation trading privileges by a year, Xu's release was widely regarded as a ploy by Beijing to help assure MFN renewal in 1993.