China Frees Aging Dissident

A leading Chinese pro-democracy activist was released from prison Tuesday and was bound for the United States, according to his family and an American activist.

Xu Wenli, jailed since 1998 on charges of endangering state security, was granted early release from his 13-year sentence and flown out of China on Tuesday, said John Kamm, who has played a role in the release of several Chinese prisoners.

In New York, his daughter, Xu Jin, was waiting at LaGuardia Airport to fly to Chicago to welcome her father, whom she hadn't seen in five years.

"It's a very merry Christmas," said Xu Jin, who teaches at a private high school in Providence, R.I. "I am very happy and anxious to see my parents."

After touching down in Chicago, she planned to accompany him on a flight back to New York City, then on to Chinatown.

"First I'm getting some food for them because my dad doesn't have much teeth left so can only eat soft food," she said.

Xu was arrested in 1998 after trying to set up the opposition China Democracy Party with other activists. The communist government quickly crushed the party and sent dozens of members to prison.

The release came a week after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner said he had appealed to Chinese officials in human rights talks in Beijing to free Xu.

Xu, who suffers from hepatitis B, was granted medical parole, Kamm said. He said Chinese officials had authorized him to announce Xu's release.

"This was directly related to the Chinese government's desire to improve relations with the United States," Kamm said. "The decision was made at a very high level."

Kamm, a former chemical company executive, runs the Dui Hua Foundation in San Francisco and specializes in collecting information on Chinese prisons.

Xu's wife, He Xintong, and a U.S. diplomat were traveling with him, Kamm said by telephone from San Francisco. He wouldn't say to which city they were traveling.

Xu is the first person convicted of endangering state security — the charge used against leading Chinese dissidents — to be released early from prison, Kamm said.

The CNN signal that serves diplomatic compounds and hotels for foreigners in Beijing was interrupted shortly after the start of a report on Xu's release. The screen went black for about one minute, and when the signal returned the next report had begun.

Xu's co-founders of the China Democracy Party — Wang Youcai and Qin Yongmin — are still in prison on similar charges, serving terms of 11 and 12 years, respectively.

Xu, who is in his late 50s, has spent more than 16 of the past 21 years in prison for political activism.

He was first arrested for advocating greater political freedoms during the 1979 Democracy Wall movement. He was imprisoned from 1982 to 1993 on charges of counterrevolution.

According to Kamm, Chinese prison authorities said a 1999 health checkup found that Xu had contracted hepatitis B. His family said the disease worsened quickly, and they feared he might die.

China has rid itself of other prominent political prisoners by paroling them on health grounds — usually on condition that they go into exile, most often in the United States, where they quickly lose their political effectiveness.

All of China's major pro-democracy activists are either in such foreign exile or in prison.

Xu has been the subject of intense U.S. lobbying. His case was mentioned in each of four speeches on human rights given this year by Clark T. Randt, the American ambassador to Beijing. U.S. legislators visiting Beijing have appealed repeatedly for his release.

Four Tibetan prisoners who were convicted of similar offenses against state security and also were the subject of American appeals were released earlier this year.

Others still behind bars include Rebiya Kadeer, a Muslim businesswoman who was imprisoned for sending newspapers to her husband, a U.S.-based activist who is agitating for independence for China's Muslim northwest.

In the State Department's 2001 human rights report, the United States listed 17 other imprisoned activists that are the focus of particular concern. Even when released, the report claimed, dissidents faced pressure.

"Some of those who completed their sentences and were released from prison were kept under surveillance and prevented from taking employment or otherwise resuming normal lives," the report read. "Authorities also harassed and monitored the activities of dissident's relatives."

Craner said last week that he raised Kadeer's case with Chinese officials, though he wouldn't say what their response was.

The state security law used to prosecute Xu was enacted in 1997, replacing the crime of counterrevolution. Since then, according to Kamm, some 3,000 people have been charged with state security offenses and 90 percent of them sent to prison.

The proposal to release Xu prompted high-level debate among Chinese officials, who worried about setting a precedent for freeing such prisoners early, Kamm said.

However, the release Tuesday shows that "it is no longer impossible for someone convicted of endangering state security to be released quite early in his term," he said.