China Dissident Asks Academic Seclusion : Politics: Fang Lizhi and his wife put aside the activism that helped spark last year’s pro-democracy movement.
LONDON — Appealing for a life of peace, quiet and academic seclusion, Chinese political dissident and astrophysicist Fang Lizhi and his wife made it clear Friday that they are abandoning the high-profile political role that helped spark last year’s pro-democracy movement in China and forced the couple to spend the past year confined to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
“We do not wish to answer any questions about political matters or to give any interviews,†Fang declared, reading from a brief prepared statement while posing for photographers outside the prestigious Royal Society, which is sponsoring his research appointment at Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy.
The statement appeared to end speculation that Fang would resume his strong criticism of China’s hard-line Communist regime while in academic exile here. Analysts in Beijing, Britain and the United States have said that such political statements would not breach the carefully worded statement Fang signed in Beijing to secure Chinese permission to leave for London last Monday.
In that initial written agreement with Chinese authorities, Fang stopped short of confessing to crimes the regime alleges that he committed in openly advocating democracy for China last year, and he pledged only to avoid “activities directed against China†after leaving the country.
But, in the Friday statement signed jointly by Fang and his wife, Li Shuxian, a physicist, Fang appealed to journalists “not to press me further†and not to pursue him in Cambridge for future statements on the Chinese political situation.
“We now look forward to going to Cambridge to pursue our academic work,†the soft-spoken Fang told the journalists who gathered outside the headquarters of the 330-year-old society in central London. “We look forward to a period of peace and quiet.â€
In the months that led up to last year’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in and around Beijing’s Tian An Men Square, Fang was among the most outspoken critics of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and other hard-line Communist Party leaders who ultimately ordered tanks to sweep through Beijing on June 3-4, 1989.
Fang did not explain Friday why he plans to remain silent on Chinese politics, but several analysts speculated that Fang and his wife remain concerned about the fate of their son, Fang Zhe, a student at Beijing University, who is still in China.
“We now look forward to our second son’s departure from Beijing to study in the United States,†Fang said, adding that the couple had “a very happy family reunion†here this week with their eldest son, Fang Ke, who flew here Wednesday from Detroit, where he is a student at Wayne State University.
But the tone of Fang’s statement indicated that even after his younger son leaves China, both he and his wife intend to confine themselves to academic activities on the tranquil Cambridge campus.
“I should now like to appeal to my friends among the media not to press me further,†Fang said in the closing line of his two-minute statement. “I hope, too, that you will understand that we would be grateful if you would not pursue me while I am in Cambridge.â€
Although he referred to the year he and his wife spent inside the U.S. Embassy compound as “our ordeal,†he appeared in good health and made no mention of the “health problems†that Chinese authorities cited in their public justification for letting him leave.
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