Wei Jingsheng investigated for fresh crimes

BEIJING (AFP): China's leading dissident Wei Jingsheng is being investigated for suspected criminal activity, the authorities said yesterday, sounding an ominous warning to pro- democracy activists at large.

"Wei is being interrogated and placed under surveillance," the Beijing Public Security Department said in a brief dispatch carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

The 43-year-old pro-democracy activist has "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," it added.

His sister, Wei Ling, told AFP that police had conducted an extensive search of her brother's office on Monday and left with a large quantity of documents.

Wei was picked up by police Friday as he tried to return to Beijing from what his brother described as a "four-week vacation" in northeast China. Since then he has not contacted family members, who said yesterday that they had received no official notification of the new investigation.

The public security bureau had previously indicated that Wei had been released following questioning on Friday.

The dispatch did not specify what "crimes" Wei was being investigated for and gave no indication as to his present whereabouts.

He was picked up in early March and held for more than 24 hours in a public security guesthouse on the northern outskirts of Beijing after meeting with U.S. Undersecretary of State for Humanitarian Affairs John Shattuck.

Wei had told Shattuck that the United States should take a firm line with China over human rights.

China's most celebrated dissident, Wei was released on parole in September, six months short of a 15-year prison term for his "counter-revolutionary" role in the 1978-79 Democracy Wall movement.

Although his period of parole has now ended, the foreign ministry said last week that Wei had been deprived of his political rights for three years, during which time he would not be allowed to meet with foreign journalists.

The latest development is likely to further sour Sino-US relations, already strained by Washington's decision to make the June renewal of China's most-favored-nation (MFN) trading status conditional on progress in human rights.

The United States said Friday it regretted the official harassment of Wei, adding that it was waiting for confirmation of his situation before making further comment.

While deploring the latest announcement, Hong Kong director of Human Rights Watch/Asia Robin Munro said the reference to "suspected" crimes did not necessarily commit the Chinese to pressing charges.

"It could be that they are wanting to scare off other dissidents as well as testing the waters to gauge the American reaction," Munro said.

"Obviously, however, if the charges are confirmed this is very serious indeed," he added.