China's endangered democrats
While the Clinton administration is busy these days repairing relations with China, it cannot ignore Beijing's continuing abuse of citizens who speak out for wider democratic freedom. Thursday the State Department rightly protested the latest wave of Chinese arrests. American concerns also need to be conveyed personally by top administration officials.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher will travel to China next month to begin planning for an exchange of presidential visits expected to take place in 1997 if President Clinton is re- elected. Clinton and Christopher should make clear their concern over the abuse of Chinese dissidents.
China does not like to hear criticism of its human rights record. But Washington has a responsibility to tell Beijing that China's hopes for economic expansion and political stability are poorly served by its cruel persecution of anyone who publicly challenges the party line.
A high-level party gathering this week launched another campaign to tighten public order and defend Communist values. On Tuesday the authorities picked up Liu Xiaobo, a literary critic, for asking party leaders to honor their promises of free speech and assembly, and a day later sentenced him without trial to three years in a labor camp. Thursday they notified relatives of Wang Dan, a leader of the 1989 student democracy movement, to prepare for a trial in the next few days. He could face seven years in prison. Wang has been held without formal charges for 17 months.
Meanwhile Wei Jingsheng, China's most prominent advocate of democracy, is now serving the harsh new 14-year sentence imposed on him last year. He had already spent 16 years in prison and secret detention for his peaceful political advocacy. Bao Tong, a high government official in the reform era of the late 1980s, has completed the seven-year prison term he was sentenced to after the Tiananmen Square crackdown, but continues to be held in a restricted government compound.
Washington needs to keep channels of communication open to a major military and economic power like China. But one important use of those channels is to convey how strongly Americans feel about democratic freedoms and the protection of human rights.
-- The New York Times