Chinese Dissident Said to Be U.S.-Bound

HONG KONG â€”  Wang Xizhe, one of China’s last free dissident leaders, is reportedly on his way to the United States to seek political asylum.

Wang’s escape marks Beijing’s effective elimination of the pro-democracy movement inside the country--and creates a preelection dilemma for President Clinton, who opted for a policy of engagement over confrontation to improve China’s human rights performance.

“The government is delivering a coup de grace to the movement as a whole,� said Human Rights Watch/Asia Director Robin Munro in Hong Kong. “I’m hard put to name anyone involved in the democracy or human rights movement who is still free or not in exile.�

Wang, 46, one of China’s first pro-democracy activists, has been in and out of prison since 1974, when he helped write a manifesto criticizing Beijing for failing to implement democracy. Since his release from his second prison term in 1993, he had been under close police surveillance but had quietly continued his political activities.

Last month, he and another longtime dissident, Liu Xiaobo, wrote a letter criticizing Chinese President Jiang Zemin; two weeks ago, police arrested Liu and sentenced him to three years’ hard labor without a trial.

That was Wang’s signal to go, said a Hong Kong friend. On Saturday, Wang helped his paralyzed father shave, told his wife he was going shopping, then slipped secretly across the border to Hong Kong. Sources here who have helped other prominent dissidents find refuge in other countries said that Wang should arrive in San Francisco today and will try to gain political asylum.

While most other prominent dissidents have been swept into prison or out of China in the last few years, Wang had repeatedly said he wanted to stay in the country because he thought exiled dissidents couldn’t do much to change the government. In an unsigned statement delivered to Hong Kong media Sunday, he attacked Beijing for its campaign of “white terror� to silence activists.

“Why are you hunting us? Which law have we broken? I am not afraid of your dungeon, but I am not going to let you shut my mouth,� it said. It also urged the release of his colleague Liu, 40, and Tiananmen protest leader Wang Dan (no relation), who is scheduled to go on trial as early as this week.

Wang Dan, 27, who topped Beijing’s “10 Most Wanted� list for helping lead the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, has been indicted for “plotting to overthrow the government,� a serious charge that can carry a death sentence. Part of his alleged “counterrevolutionary� activities include having taken a correspondence course through UC Berkeley, said Wang Lingyun, his mother. The 61-year-old researcher at a museum will help defend her son at the trial although she has no background in law. Chinese laws allow accused to be defended by family members.

Wang Xizhe’s flight and Wang Dan’s upcoming trial highlight Beijing’s determination to neutralize dissidents, a campaign that intensified after Clinton de-linked China’s most-favored-nation trade status with its performance on human rights in May 1995. The annual debate over whether to punish China by revoking its trade privileges was a messy and confrontational way to pressure Beijing, both critics and advocates agreed, but it was the only tool Washington had, say some.

“Since Clinton de-linked MFN, we have almost completely lost the impressive set of concessions we had wrested from China,� said John Kamm, a businessman and independent human rights monitor who has met frequently with Chinese officials to discuss the status of political prisoners.

Human rights sources point out that within 10 days of Clinton’s decision, Beijing cut cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross’s efforts to improve prison conditions; that it gradually stopped responding to Washington’s requests for information on prisoners; and that it either exiled or rearrested almost every prominent dissident who had been released under pressure from the Clinton administration.

“Most people would agree that the decision was an error,� said Kamm.

Clinton has promised to visit China if reelected and has reportedly been discussing ways to give Beijing permanent MFN status. Wang’s arrival in the United States and the prospect of a harsh sentence for Wang Dan may stoke preelection criticism of the president’s foreign policy, which is already under fire, and pressure him to justify his position toward Beijing.

When Clinton granted China unconditional MFN status last year, he argued that long-term engagement with China could bring about more change than isolating the country. The decision was especially controversial after he criticized then-President Bush for “coddling the butchers of Beijing� during the 1992 presidential campaign, and brought well-known Chinese dissidents onto the stage at that year’s Democratic National Convention.

Many people are “operating under the assumption that we can change China,� said an American business leader in China who had lobbied for the de-linking of MFN and human rights. “I don’t think we have much influence on the government internally, but maybe in the long term� there could be change because of consistent contact.