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The Associated Press
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Associated Press.
January 8, 1999, Friday, AM cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 628 words
HEADLINE: Hearing on
human rights in China ends in shoving match
BYLINE: By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Rival Chinese dissident groups exchanged shoves and shouts Friday after one
group of exiles told a congressional panel that conditions have worsened
dramatically in the seven months since President Clinton's visit to China.
The hearing before the House International Relations Committee demonstrated the
fractious
nature of the Chinese dissident community. Protesters complained that they
hadn't been given a chance to testify.
In a separate appearance, Chinese Ambassador Li Zhaoxing, criticized those who
testified, insisting that China punishes only those who break its laws.
Wei Jingsheng, who spent 18 years in Chinese prisons, told the committee that
there had been
"a constant stream of arrests" since Clinton's visit in June.
"If we do not act swiftly, there will soon be more and more mothers who have
lost their sons, wives who have lost their mothers and
children who have lost their parents," Wei said.
He and other dissidents called on Congress to consider imposing economic
sanctions on China, 20 years after the two nations formally established
diplomatic ties.
Committee members of both parties seized on the testimony to appeal to
administration
officials to maintain a hard line next Tuesday in talks in Washington with
China's assistant foreign minister, Wang Guangya.
Clinton administration policy toward China is
"a pathetic failure," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
The committee released a recent
report by Amnesty International concluding that
"while there has been minor, and mostly symbolic, progress in a few areas, in
most areas the situation has actually gotten worse in the last three months."
Not one Tiananmen Square prisoner has been released since Clinton's visit,
China has
taken no steps to undertake a review of political prisoners and continues the
use of torture, the report said.
The hearing ended in melee between rival dissident groups, provoked by those
who complained they hadn't been given a chance to testify.
Committee staff members sought to keep
shoving and shirt-pulling antagonists apart until police were summoned to
restore order and clear the room.
The fracas began after shouting in Chinese broke out. Looking perplexed,
chairman Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y., asked if anyone could translate. But
without waiting for
an answer, he gaveled the hearing to a close.
Gilman quickly ducked out of the room as the shouting intensified and chairs
were knocked over.
The protesters, in particular, criticized the committee's decision to invite
Wei and three other former political prisoners.
"We are outraged with the placement of the wrong persons on the panel,"
said a statement issued by a group of Washington-based Chinese dissidents who
oppose what they view as Wei's self-proclaimed leadership of the movement.
Some Washington leaders of the Chinese Democracy Movement had broken with Wei
late last year.
Gerald Lipson, a spokesman for the
committee, said that Gilman was not aware of the rivalries among the dissidents
or that a protest had been planned, and was glad no one was hurt or arrested.
Meanwhile, at the National Press Club, Ambassador Li scoffed at Wei, calling
him a criminal who was allowed to come to the United States in
1997 for medical treatment and ended up testifying on Capitol Hill. Wei spent
most of 18 years in Chinese prison.
"In China, we practice the rule of law," Li said.
"If you don't violate the criminal code, you don't get arrested."
Li said those who
talk most loudly about human rights
"didn't say one word about victims of flooding last year and didn't take any
action at all." He said Americans should respect China's system as different from that of the
United States.
"There are differences among people and we have to get used to that," he said
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: January 8, 1999
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