A leading Chinese
dissident, Wang Youcai, has been
released from jail and is headed to the US.
Mr Wang, one of the founders of the outlawed
China Democracy Party, was sentenced to 11 years
in jail in 1998.
He has left for San Francisco, where he will
receive medical treatment, John Kamm of the Dui
Hua Foundation said.
His release comes ahead of an annual UN human
rights meeting in Geneva at which the US was
considering criticising China's rights record.
He left the Zhejiang No 1 prison in Hangzhou,
southern China, early on Thursday.
US pressure
The US government has welcomed Mr Wang's
release, with State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher saying that he had been "imprisoned for
attempting to exercise basic freedoms of speech
and assembly and China".
"We once again call on Chinese government to
release all prisoners detained for peaceful
expression of their views," Mr Boucher added.
 |
CHINA DEMOCRACY PARTY
Set up by dissidents in 1998
First attempt to legally register an
opposition party
Quickly crushed by Communist Party
At least 30 members sentenced to jail
terms of up to 13 years
Co-founders Xu Wenli released 2002, Qin
Yongmin still imprisoned
|
"Clearly, I think, they (the Chinese
authorities) have been releasing and giving
sentence reductions to people who are considered
priority cases by the United States," Mr Kamm
told The Associated Press.
"It's part of an overall effort to get the
human rights dialogue back on track," he said.
Medical worries
Mr Wang, 37, first came to prominence as one
of the student leaders involved in the 1989
Tiananmen Square demonstrations, which were
brutally suppressed by the Chinese authorities
at the cost of several hundred lives.
Mr Wang, a physics graduate from Peking
University, was described by the authorities as
one of the "most wanted" students, and was
jailed for taking part in the protests.
In 1998 he was sentenced again, for his part
in founding the China Democracy Party, the first
attempt to set up a legal opposition to China's
ruling Communist Party.
Communist officials outlawed the party soon
after its inception, jailing more than 30 people
for taking part.
Mr Wang was tried on the charge of "subverting
state power", and was accused of organising
meetings, using computer e-mail to send
information and accepting donations from
overseas.
Timely decision
His release, more than five years ahead of
schedule, comes on the eve of the Chinese
parliament's National People's Congress, which
is expected to enshrine a commitment to human
rights in China's constitution.
The Dui Hua Foundation said Mr Wang had
suffered from bronchial disorders and was
recently diagnosed with myocarditis, an
inflammation or degeneration of the heart's
muscle tissue.
But it is difficult to determine how far his
medical conditions played a part in his release.
A BBC correspondent in Beijing, Louisa Lim,
says that medical parole for treatment overseas
is often used as a way to send unwanted
individuals into exile.
The release came one day after Chinese
authorities cut the sentence of another
prominent prisoner - the Uighur businesswoman
Rabiya Kadeer.
She was sentenced to eight years in jail in
2000 on charges of separatism, but is now due to
be released in August 2006, or even sooner,
according to the Dui Hua Foundation
