So, what about China?

So now we know the cost of speaking freely in China: 13 years behind bars. That is the sentence handed down after a sham trial to Xu Wenli, who tried to organize a Chinese Democratic Party. Follow democrats Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin were sentenced to 11 years and 12 years, respectively. None was allowed to mount a defense.

In October, China's Communist rulers signed, to great self- congratulation and international acclaim, a treaty that recognizes freedom of speech and freedom of association as universal rights. Mr. Xu and his colleagues have now been sent back to the Chinese gulag for seeking to exercise them.

Mr. Xu, 55, spent 12 years in prison after supporting a fledgling democracy movement back in 1979. Most of those years were in solitary confinement; for long stretches he was deprived of visits. Mr. Wang, 32, a former leader in the democracy movement of 1989, spent most of 1991 in prison. Mr.Qin, 44, has served seven years in prison and three in labor camps for prodemocracy activities. Yet all three, and many others, had the courage to continue speaking up for liberty.

The cynicism of China's dictators was only highlighted by their decision to release into exile, simultaneously with their crackdown against these and other democrats, a labor activist named Liu Nianchun. Mr. Liu had spent the past three years undergoing "reeducation through labor". His release is to be welcomed, although forced exile should not distract attention from the dozens of arrests and imprisonments of recent months, nor from the thousands who remain in captivity for political or religious offenses.

Long ago, the Clinton administration dropped any links between trade and human rights in its China policy. Then, just about one year ago, the administration and its allies in Europe shrunk even their efforts at public diplomacy, abandoning their campaign to draw attention to China's human rights record. The idea was that quiet diplomacy would work better than public condemnation. Now the results are in. How will the West respond?

-- The Washington Post