China's move against dissident shows power of ideas

By David Schlesinger

BEIJING (Reuter): China's latest move against its most prominent dissident shows Wei Jingsheng's potency as a symbol of democratic pressures.

The official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday published a police statement saying Wei was being detained and interrogated "because he violated the law on many occasions and is suspected of having committed new crimes when he was deprived of his political rights and on parole."

Wei was released in September after serving nearly 15 years in prison. His renewed detention is sure to rekindle debate in the United States about whether human rights concerns should stand in the way of normal trade between Beijing and Washington.

In less than two months President Bill Clinton must decide whether to renew China's Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading privileges -- something he has said he will do only if it makes progress on rights.

Chinese officials did not specify the new charges against Wei. But the timing of the hard-line statement shows how dangerous the Communist Party feels Wei has become. He has been a focal point of Beijing's small and scattered dissident community since his release.

"They have found it very difficult to handle Wei Jingsheng," a Western diplomat said. "They had two options: let him go on, which has domestic consequences, or stop him, which has international consequences.

"They've showed that no matter what, they're not going to have dissent at any cost."

Wei is a self-taught political philosopher who has been a challenge to the Communist Party since the late 1970s.

His most famous work, written at the height of the short-lived "Democracy Wall" movement in 1978, was a tract entitled The Fifth Modernization -- Democracy.

This demanded that the Chinese people be given a voice in their future. This right, said Wei, was as important as the government-approved Four Modernizations for industry, agriculture, technology and the armed forces.

"People should have democracy. If they ask for democracy, they are only asking for something they rightfully own. Anyone refusing to give them democracy is a shameless bandit no better than a capitalist who robs workers of their money earned with their sweat and blood," the article said.

Wei's long years of imprisonment have clearly not changed his ideas at all. This leaves him directly at odds with a Communist Party so determined to maintain political control that only five years ago it ordered a bloody army crackdown on student-led pro- democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

In one recent article, written for Hong Kong's Eastern Express newspaper, Wei warned businessmen against sacrificing democratic principles in their rush to make money off the China market -- an argument which cuts to the heart of the MFN debate.

"The potential of China's vast market is very seductive," he wrote.

"But if investors fail to invest in helping the rational forces of democratic reform and instead leave China's fate in the hands of reactionary autocrats or other unpredictable elements, then this is not merely harmful to the interests of the Chinese people.

"It is also harmful to the interests of the businessmen who have invested in the China market themselves."

His words directly contradicted Chinese leaders who have worked hard to get American businesses to lobby the Clinton administration to remove the link between human rights and trade.

Businessmen and economists have warned of serious economic consequences for both sides if the rights row ruptures trade ties.

A commentary in this week's official Outlook Weekly praised business leaders who took China's side and dismissed as know- nothing idealists those who tried to get human rights progress through trade pressure.

"Their ignorance of China and the world situation is extreme," the magazine's commentator wrote. "They still grasp on to the outdated weapons of the 'carrot' and the 'stick'.

"But we believe that reality is the best teacher and will sooner or later bring these idealists around."

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