Two questions for China's president

Relations between the United States and China have recovered enough to permit their presidents to meet in New York on Tuesday. But the climate remains chilly. One reason is China's continuing hard line on human rights.

Of special concern to Americans are two Chinese democrats who were freed from prison to help win trade concessions from Washington, but seized anew after Washington cut the link between trade and human rights.

Wei Jingsheng was a leader in the democratic flowering of 1979, when Deng Xiaoping, freshly rehabilitated, briefly tolerated political discussion. But once Deng consolidated power he made an example of Wei, jailing him for nearly 15 years.

Finally Washington made an issue of Wei's detention, helping to bring about his release in late 1993. He resumed his campaign for democracy and was seized again six months later. He has been held since without charge. His friends have not heard from him in more than a year.

The other imprisoned democrat, Chen Ziming, was one of the two people tried as intellectual leaders of the Tiananmen movement. Both Chen and his fellow defendant, Wang Juntao, won medical release in early 1994 as China lobbied to renew its American trade privileges. Wang now lives in the United States, but Chen remained in China and was rearrested this June, despite the fact that he remains seriously ill.

When U.S. President Bill Clinton cut the link between China's trade privileges and its respect for human rights, he said Washington would use other means to defend Chinese citizens. He can now honor that commitment by reminding President Jiang Zemin about America's concern with the cases of Wei Jingsheng and Chen Ziming.

-- The New York Times