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September 14, 1998 05:25 GMT

SECTION: International news

LENGTH: 448 words

HEADLINE: Three more provinces join call for China opposition party

DATELINE: BEIJING, Sept 14

BODY:
Democracy activists in three more Chinese provinces applied Monday to register the first opposition political party since 1949, bringing the number of landmark applications to six.

Dissidents in the northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang lodged applications to register branches of the China Democracy Party (CDP), activist Leng Wanbao from Jilin province said by telephone.

The three demands followed on from applications in central Hubei province, and eastern Shandong and Zhejiang provinces.

They were made by five Liaoning activists, two Jilin activists and a Heilongjiang activist.

"I am ready to accept any consequence from this effort to apply for registration, no matter if it results in the revocation of my lawyer's licence or political persecution," Wang Wenjiang, a lawyer from Liaoning, told the US-based Free China Movement.

"I have told my family I am willing to sacrifice myself for the cause of a free China," he added in a faxed statement.

Activists from eastern Shandong and central Hubei provinces said Friday that officials in both provinces had accepted opposition party applications for consideration and had asked for four simple conditions to be fulfilled.

The four conditions were that the party had a capitalisation of 50,000 yuan (6,000 dollars), that details of its headquarters and main organisers were provided, and there were at least 50 named members.

"We have thought about the possibilty that the government is luring us into a trap but we are not afraid. We will fulfill the four conditions and see what happens," Hubei dissident Qin Yongmin said.

"We don't want to move too fast and put too much pressure on the government," he added.

An official from the mass organisations section of the Hubei Civil Affairs Bureau indicated that changes could be afoot as the government was "revising" regulations on mass organisations in order to make the process more simple.

Over the summer, dissidents in eastern Zhejiang province made the initial attempt to register the CDP -- the first attempt to register a party since the start of Communist rule in 1949.

But that application led to several detentions.

Police held about 20 activists associated with the party and activist Wang Youcai was arrested for "incitement to overthrow state power," a reference to his attempt to legally register the CDP.

He was later released and told to report daily to the police.

"The formal arrest has been changed to a kind of house arrest where the police come to my house everyday and I have to tell them what I am doing," Wang said.

"I don't think the police will press the formal charges," he added.

blh/pch

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: September 14, 1998