
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 6, 1994                   TAG: 9403060056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BEIJING                                LENGTH: Medium

DISSIDENT'S DETENTION SCRUTINIZED

China's detention and release of its most famous political dissident within a day has analysts asking why China would do something so seemingly contradictory when its human-rights record is at issue.

U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher is due in Beijing this week to tell China's leaders that if there is not enough progress on human rights, Washington will not renew the most-favored-nation trading status that is critical to fueling their country's economic growth.

"I wouldn't presume to know what motivated the Chinese government," President Clinton said Friday.

Some Chinese and Western analysts say the detention and subsequent release of Wei Jingsheng, 43, reflects a continuing struggle between hard-liners and more moderate elements within the ruling Communist Party.

In this view, hard-liners may be upset at what they see as moves by moderate elements to make concessions to the United States. Wei, who was released in September after nearly 15 years in jail, was a conspicuous target. He continued to give interviews to foreign journalists, and he plans to write a book about his prison years despite warnings from security officials.

As one of the most eloquent activists of the 1978-79 Democracy Wall movement, the Beijing electrician was singled out for criticism by senior leader Deng Xiaoping.

"I think the Chinese government wanted to show their hard-line attitude toward Wei," said Dai Qing, a journalist and activist who was herself taken into custody briefly in 1991 while then-Secretary of State James Baker was in Beijing pressing Chinese leaders on rights.

"He is a very special case," she said. "I'm sure their thinking was, "We're just not going to give in.' "

It is still possible that China could make positive gestures in other human-rights areas, Dai said. In an unusual government-arranged trip, for example, five U.S. journalists were taken on a tour of a labor camp where a Tiananmen Square activist is being held.

But the five reporters - whose tour was videotaped by the Chinese - were not allowed to speak to the prisoner, Liu Gang.

by CNB