4101 Davenport St., NW

Washington, DC 20016

202/361-0989

For Immediate Release

Date: February 11, 2003

Contact: Timothy Cooper

Tel: 202/361-0989

VERY IMPORTANT COMMUNIST OFFICIAL IN BEIJING ORDERED WANG BINGZHANG’S LIFE SENTENCE, SOURCES INSIDE CHINESE CENTRALGOVERNMENT SAY

(INFORMATION CONTRADICTS FOREIGN MINISTRY’S STATEMENT THAT TRIAL WAS CONDUCTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH LAW)

Washington, DC—Free China Movement (FCM) has learned from its sources inside the Chinese Central government that the life sentence imposed on Chinese Mandela Dr. Wang Bingzhang was ordered by a “very important communist official in Beijing.” The source quotes the Beijing official as saying, “Since he (Dr. Wang) is willing to spend his whole life in jail if that can end our Party’s rule, in exchange then let him stay in jail for life!”

Additionally, FCM has been learned that a letter written by Dr. Wang to his family on February 8, 2003 was published by the PRC-controlled newspaper Wenhui Bao in Hong Kong. Today a copy of that letter was faxed to his family. In another report issued by Qiao Boa newspaper, Dr. Wang is quoted as saying in the letter that he had hoped that his state-appointed lawyers would mount a “not guilty” defense on his behalf. However, his lawyers are reported to have only argued that there was insufficient evidence for the so-called “court” to convict him.

Later, after the “judge” announced Dr. Wang’s sentence, the news report claims that Dr. Wang became emotionally upset, shouting at the judge as he was led away, “I want to express my own opinion! I want to express my own opinion!” he said. The fact that Dr. Wang was not able to plead “not guilty” in his own defense speaks volumes about the denial of due process afforded Dr. Wang during his trial on sham charges of espionage and terrorism.

“The true reason that China’s totalitarian regime sentenced Dr. Wang to life in prison is because it is frightened of all that he represents,” stated Shengde Lian, executive director of Free China Movement. “If nothing else, he represents the embodiment of a stronger alliance among the overseas democracy movement, the rising Chinese labor movement, and pro-democracy forces inside the Chinese government and the Chinese military. While corruption runs rampant in China and the economic disparity increases between the privileged few and the unfairly deprived masses, pressure continues to build on the government to make wholesale democratic change. All that is lacking is a trigger. Dr. Wang represented one of those triggers. So frightened was the communist regime by him that it waged its own form of state terrorism against him by kidnapping Dr. Wang, so that his links to pro-democracy supporters in China could be severed. But China’s ploy has backfired. Dr. Wang’s harsh sentence has been roundly condemned by people of conscience around the world. In fact, it has galvanized the pro-democracy movement everywhere. Protests in Washington DC and in other cities around the world are in the planning stages. Dr. Wang’s cause will not die, even as he remains in prison. The peaceful struggle to end China’s era of totalitarian rule is rising once again. We will not rest until the people of China live in freedom,” Mr. Lian concluded. Shengde Lian is a former Tian An Men Square student leader as well as a political prisoner. His parents and family members are held hostage by the Chinese government because it has refused to grant them passports to visit Mr. Lian in America for the past 8 years.

“It is now an irrefutable fact that there is no justice under Chinese law. The law was not created to provide for ordinary justice, but as a means to maintain the so-called “people’s democratic dictatorship” and the absolute control of Chinese Communist Party,” stated Yongjun Zhou, a former Tian An Men Square student leader and survivor of Laojiao Concentration Campaign in China. “Dr. Wang’s trial took place only after its verdict and sentence was pre-ordained. The case of Dr. Wang was politically motivated. Its purpose was to link legitimate political dissent to terrorism. What we have here is not a case of Dr. Wang committing terrorism acts, but of the Communist government engaging in terrorist acts against pro-democracy dissidents,” concluded Yongjun Zhou. After being sentenced to forced labor for three years in 1998 after returning to China to visit his parents, Mr. Zhou was permitted to return to America in 2002. He is currently the American Director of Free China Movement coalition and chair of one of FCM’s member organizations, the “Campaign to end Laojiao Concentration Camp in China.”

“What Beijing dreads most is waking up one day to find the head of the Chinese pro-democracy movement fitted on the body of the country’s fledgling labor movement,” stated Timothy Cooper, international director of the Free China Movement and ambassador-at-large for the China Democracy Party. “This marriage of principle and power would create an unstoppable force for democracy in China and that is why China has gone to such extraordinary lengths to kidnap, try and sentence one of the few people who could accomplish this feat,” Cooper concluded.

“In America when "national security" interests are involved, the Court invokes the Classified Information Procedures Act to protect the classified information, sources and methods, but the trial remains open to the public and media, the defense remains able to call its own witnesses and present its own evidence, and the defense remains able to conduct effective cross-examination of the prosecution's evidence.......in China, the trial is closed, no evidence is presented to the defense, the defense is not allowed to call any witnesses, the defense is not allowed to present any evidence, and the trial lasts only a few minutes......in other words whereas the Soviets had many "show" trials, the communist Chinese only have "no trials" with no evidence, no witnesses, no defense, no rights, and no due process,” stated Paul Risenhoover, board member of FCM.

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