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Prisoner Lists Now an Aid to U.S.-China Ties
Beijing Seen as Newly
Responsive To Formal Approach to Rights Talks
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 18, 2002; Page A20
BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- When President Bush last met with
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, a senior State
Department official passed a list of 13 jailed
dissidents and other prisoners to a Chinese
counterpart and delivered a message: If China wanted
better relations with the United States, it should let
these people go.
The Chinese government responded in the following
months by releasing two of the individuals on the
list. They were Jigme Sangpo, a Tibetan teacher who
was one of China's longest-held political prisoners,
and David Chow, a U.S. businessman jailed eight years
ago on questionable fraud charges. Today, eight days
before Bush and Jiang are scheduled to meet again,
China released a third person on the list, a young
Tibetan nun named Ngawang Sangdrol who was imprisoned
in 1992 at the age of 15.
Although China often frees political prisoners as a
gesture before summits and other critical meetings,
Western diplomats and human rights activists say the
Bush administration's formal use of prisoner lists --
and the Chinese government's willingness to respond --
represent a new, more businesslike approach to
formerly contentious human rights talks.
The United States first presented China with prisoner
lists after the crackdown on student-led protests in
Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. It continued doing
so through the early 1990s. But China complained about
interference in its "internal affairs" and often
provided scant information about the prisoners in
response. In the late 1990s, as relations soured in
disputes over Taiwan and the mistaken U.S. bombing of
the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo
conflict, the exchange of prisoner lists essentially
ended.
Then last October, as China sought to present itself
as a partner in the U.S.-led war on terrorism,
American diplomats presented Beijing with a list of 74
prisoners. They received information on 68, and nearly
30 have since been released or had their sentences
reduced, according to John Kamm, an activist from San
Francisco who compiled a database of 6,500 Chinese
political prisoners and helped the State Department
draft the list.
The Chinese response is part of a larger trend over
the past two years in which the government has begun
routinely responding to prisoner lists with detailed
information and occasional early releases or sentence
reductions, according to diplomats from Western
nations and nongovernmental organizations.
"I think they realize now that this works to their
advantage, that it's good public relations," said a
diplomat involved in human rights talks with China. "They
have even started notifying us in advance before
anyone on our list is released."
Kamm said the Chinese government has provided foreign
diplomats with information on about 250 prisoners and
that his research shows these prisoners are twice as
likely to be released early. Several former prisoners
have also reported receiving better treatment after
being included on lists given to the Chinese by
foreign governments.
Some critics have derided use of prisoner lists as "hostage
diplomacy" that rewards the Chinese government for
freeing people it never should have arrested and
helping only a handful of the thousands unjustly
imprisoned in China. But Kamm said computer databases
have weakened that criticism.
"The old argument about this being hostage politics
and helping only a few people no longer holds," Kamm
said. "We now have the technology available to inquire
about and help large numbers of people."
In its talks with Chinese officials, the Bush
administration still focuses on a small number of
prisoners, bringing up the same cases again and again
and urging visiting congressmen and other officials to
do so as well. "We're very interested in being
consistent, and not having them hear different things,"
said one senior U.S. official.
Clark T. Randt Jr., the U.S. ambassador in Beijing,
has named the same five political prisoners in all his
recent public speeches: Xu Wenli, founder of the China
Democracy Party; Rebiya Kadeer, an ethnic Uighur
businesswoman; Su Zhimin, an underground Catholic
bishop; Jiang Weiping, an investigative journalist;
and Ngawang Sangdrol, the Tibetan nun who was released
today.
Visiting U.S. officials have raised the same cases, as
well as other prisoners on the list presented during
Bush's visit in February: Xu Zerong, a scholar jailed
for his research on the Korean War; Han Chunsheng, a
farmer who wrote letters to Voice of America; labor
leader Liu Jingsheng; and U.S. businessmen Fong Fuming
and Liu Yaping.
In a statement, Randt said the prisoners on the U.S.
lists "represent broader categories of persons of
concern" and are selected with input from Congress and
nongovernmental organizations. He said the lists are "important
in generating concrete results in the ongoing
U.S.-China dialogue on human rights."
Diplomats said the Chinese government has been willing
to accommodate the American requests because prisoner
releases are a relatively easy way to demonstrate its
desire to improve bilateral relations. "They are
unwilling or unable to make real, visible progress on
human rights issues like freedom of speech, religion,
rule of law or the status of Tibet, so they turn to
these lists," said one diplomat. "With the States, the
releases are particularly useful because the bilateral
relationship is so important to them."
Next week's summit could be the last for Jiang, who is
scheduled to retire later this year, and the Chinese
government appears determined to make it a success. At
a briefing this week, a senior Foreign Ministry
official, He Yafei, said Jiang's visit to Bush's ranch
in Crawford, Tex., "indicates a closeness of not only
a personal relationship between the two leaders, but
also a mature and close relationship between the two
countries."
Consultations about Iraq and North Korea are expected
to dominate the meeting, but the two leaders are also
expected to finalize an agreement on U.S. technical
assistance in customs inspections and set a date for
another round of human rights talks.
Chinese officials said they do not expect any problem
in discussions about Taiwan, the self-governing island
China claims as part of its territory. "We have sensed
a change in their tone," said a high-ranking Foreign
Ministry official, referring to recent statements by
U.S. officials opposing a unilateral declaration of
independence by Taiwan.
The official said Jiang will press Bush to resume
military exchanges with the People's Liberation Army.
He said the two governments remain at odds in arms
control talks, but Jiang will press for an end to
sanctions barring U.S. companies from launching
satellites on Chinese rockets.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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