ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEIJING
SOURCE: Associated Press
China released a cancer-stricken dissident from prison Wednesday, in an apparent bid to appease the United States two weeks before a visit by Secretary of State Warren Christopher, critics charge.
The release of Chen Ziming, jailed as an organizer of massive protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989, follows the 11-year prison term handed out to another dissident, Wang Dan, last week.
Chen's family had appealed for the 44-year-old dissident's release so he could seek treatment.
Although the government freed Chen on medical parole, the move appeared calculated to counter criticism of Wang's sentence and brighten the mood for Christopher's Nov.20-21 visit, critics of China's government said. Christopher, who was invited by Vice Premier Qian Qichen when the two met in Indonesia in July, is expected to raise human rights issues.
``It's the old good-cop, bad-cop routine,'' said Robin Munro, a China researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch/Asia. ``First, they sentence Wang Dan on ludicrous charges. Then, as a kind of placatory offering, apparently to the Americans, they allow Chen Ziming out on medical parole.''
``It would be an outrage if the U.S. government accepts this as enough,'' Munro said.
Wang, a student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations that were crushed by tanks and troops, was convicted Oct.30 of trying to overthrow the government.
After being freed from a prison in Beijing, Chen returned home Wednesday morning saying he was tired.
Chen was freed on medical parole once before. After being diagnosed with cancer in 1994, he was released from a 13-year sentence for organizing the 1989 protests. But he was rearrested a year later after staging a one-day hunger strike to mark the anniversary of the army crackdown. Police said at the time that if he was healthy enough to fast, he was healthy enough to finish his prison term.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB