Document 11 of 12.
Copyright 1998 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
December 01, 1998
17:22 GMT
SECTION: International news
LENGTH: 750 words
HEADLINE: China detains six in crackdown on opposition party
BYLINE: Patrick Baert
DATELINE: BEIJING, Dec 1
BODY:
Six Chinese dissidents, including two vocal state opponents, have been detained
in a concerted police crackdown on the fledgling China Democracy Party (CDP),
relatives and a rights group said Tuesday.
At the same time, CDP founder Wang Youcai was officially placed
under arrest after earlier being detained for breaching terms of his parole,
his wife said.
"We strongly protest the ongoing persecution of these citizens' efforts to
organise a peaceful, open political party," the US-based
Free China Movement Network, which groups 30 dissident organisations, said
in a faxed statement.
"We warn the Chinese government not to close off the last chance of peaceful
reform in China as advocated by the China Democracy Party."
In a coordinated sweep late Monday, police in Beijing picked up Xu Wenli, 54,
at the same time as Wuhan-based Qin Yongmin, 44, was detained in central China,
relatives said.
Police gave notice they were detaining the pair on suspicion of
attempting to overthrow the state, an accusation commonly levelled against
dissidents and a move that frequently leads to lengthy prison terms.
The two veteran dissidents were singled out by police for their repeated and
vocal demands to have the CDP legally recognized after its launch in late June.
Their
detentions left few vocal activists behind, but three dissidents in Beijing --
He Depu, Gao Hongming and Wang Zhiming -- protested and called for their
immediate release.
"We express our disappointment and fury at the neglect by some local officials
of the basic criteria of human rights," they said
in a statement received by AFP.
"This contradicts the international covenant on civil and political rights China
has just signed. We hope the state leaders will correct these local officials'
wrongdoings."
Wang, from eastern Zhejiang province, was also officially arrested on Monday
after a month
in detention for breaking parole conditions on an earlier charge of subversion,
his wife said.
"The police told me this afternoon that Wang Youcai was officially arrested
yesterday and that they have another 30 days to press charges," she said.
While Qin and Xu remain in detention and have not been officially
arrested, the moves against the three most vocal members of the CDP come
shortly after a high-level warning that opposition parties will not be
tolerated.
"If an organisation is designed to go for the multi-party system and attempts to
negate the leadership of the Communist Party then it will
not be allowed to exist," said Li Peng, the head of China's parliament and number two in the Communist
Party hierarchy.
"Under our constitution, the Communist Party is the leader of China's revolution
and nation-building," he said in an interview published Tuesday in the Handelsblatt, a German
financial and
business daily.
Li, who was premier during the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy
demonstrations, and widely blamed for the crackdown, said China's economic
reforms could only push ahead because of the political stability brought about
by the Communist Party.
Police at Wuhan's Xingouqiao police
station confirmed Qin was being held, while Qin's father said police had
indicated they were investigating a charge of attempting to overthrow the
state.
Xu's wife, He Xintong, said meanwhile that she was not optimistic over the fate
of her husband after he was taken away by 20 police.
"The police specified that
Xu was being 'detained' and not just 'questioned'," she said.
"They told him that he was a 'suspect'."
Police searched Xu's home for almost four hours, seizing documents, his
personal computer and a fax machine.
They last took him into detention in October during the visit of British Prime
Minister
Tony Blair and warned him to stop all activity linked with the CDP.
The detentions of Xu and Qin and the formal arrest of Wang came as four
lesser-known CDP members were also detained, the Hong Kong-based Information
Centre of Human Rights and Information and Democracy in China said.
In Wuhan,
Chen Zhonghe, Lu Xinhua and Xiao Shichang were taken away by police, while a
sixth party member, Lai Jinbiao, was also taken away in Zhejiang province.
Efforts to obtain official recognition for the CDP began in Hangzhou at the end
of June, during
US President Bill Clinton's landmark state visit to China.
Since then, attempts to set up provincial branches of the CDP in Shanghai,
Beijing, and at least seven other provinces have failed.
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LOAD-DATE: December 01, 1998
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