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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994                   TAG: 9401280029
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BEIJING                                LENGTH: Medium

LINKING TRADE TO HUMAN RIGHTS WORKS IN CHINA

The two godfathers of China's democracy movement make their point with a certain authority: They know Western pressure advances human rights in China - it got them out of prison.

Wei Jingsheng and Xu Wenli, who topped the list of prominent Chinese political prisoners for more than a decade, say they're Exhibits A and B in this year's debate in Washington over how to deal with China.

Using trade to wring human rights concessions out of China "may not be the best method, but it's what the United States chose," Wei said. "If you retreat, you lose."

Any suspicion that the media-wise pair actually spent the last dozen years in politics, instead of jail, vanishes when they laugh: There's barely a full set of teeth between them.

Xu, 50, and Wei, 43, were leading advocates of democratic reform in 1979-80, cranking out home-mimeographed journals of political essays. Wei was arrested in 1979, Xu in 1981; both were sentenced to 15 years.

Xu was released last May, as Washington debated for the fourth year whether to cancel China's most-favored-nation trade status as punishment for suppressing dissent. Loss of normal trade status would sharply raise tariffs on Chinese exports to the United States, effectively shutting them out of their largest market.

Wei was freed in September, 10 days before the International Olympic Committee voted on Beijing's bid to hold the 2000 Olympic Games. China lost the Olympic bid, but kept its most-favored-nation status for another year.

Now, as the U.S. government again debates what to do about China, Xu and Wei said they hope Washington will be tough.

The pressure on the U.S. government to play down human rights is strong this year. China is wooing American companies with the prospect of rich contracts. Some China scholars in the United States say the annual battle is too bruising and that quiet diplomacy is more effective.

A growing chorus - including U.S. Ambassador Stapleton Roy - says China already has made big human rights improvements.

Wei, who isn't free to travel or find work, responded angrily.

"It's certainly not true that now is the best time in Chinese history. Many Chinese are disgusted with what your ambassador said."

Xu said he was alarmed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen's hints that the United States might make China's most-favored-nation status permanent, eliminating the annual pressure for human rights improvements, if China makes significant concessions this year.

Although they have respect and influence in China's dispersed dissident community, Wei and Xu do not speak for all dissidents.

Most dissidents and intellectuals in Beijing say they oppose canceling China's trade status because they fear the loss of the U.S. export market would cost tens of thousands of factory workers their jobs.

by CNB