Beijing Trials Seen as Threat to U.S. Ties : China: Prosecution of pro-democracy leaders may block any improvement in relations, a key congressman says.

A wave of trials of top leaders of last year’s pro-democracy movement threatens to block any improvement in strained Sino-American relations, a congressman said here Wednesday.

“There seems to be a general judgment here (among Chinese officials) that the worst in their relationship with the United States has passed, that the world is looking at other problems, that what might happen here with further prosecutions will be little noticed,” Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.) said at a news conference. “It is my view that that is a tragic mistake if that is their judgment.”

Torricelli, who met with Vice Foreign Minister Liu Huaqiu and lower-level Chinese officials, said he was not told which individuals face prosecution. Officials acknowledged, however, that trials of protest leaders imprisoned since last year have begun, he said.

Trials were held as early as the summer of last year for some protesters accused of violent resistance to the June 3-4, 1989, army crackdown on protests in Beijing. But detained leaders of the democracy movement have been held until now without trial.

A spokeswoman for the Beijing Intermediate Court confirmed Tuesday that trials began last week for two students, Zhang Ming, 25, and Zheng Xuguang, 21, who played major roles in the seven weeks of pro-democracy protests. Zhang and Zheng were among 21 dissidents on a most-wanted list issued soon after the crackdown.

No public announcements of trials have been made in the state- controlled Chinese media. But according to Chinese sources and Western diplomats who have spoken with reporters during the last week, legal proceedings have begun against at least 10 major figures in addition to Zhang and Zheng. They include:

* Wang Dan, a Beijing University student who was No. 1 on the most-wanted list, and Liu Gang, a former graduate student in physics at the same university who was No. 3 on the list.

* Liu Xiaobo, a university professor who returned from the United States to help lead the protests after they began. He has been charged with spreading “counterrevolutionary propaganda.”

* Chen Ziming, former publisher of the now-banned Economic Studies Weekly, and its editor Wang Juntao, who are charged with plotting to overthrow the government.

* Ren Wanding, a veteran dissident who previously spent four years imprisoned for his activism during a 1979 pro-democracy movement.

* Liu Suli, a professor at the University of Politics and Law in Beijing; Bao Zunxin, a philosopher and writer; Beijing University professor Chen Xiaoping and China Labor College professor Lu Jiamin.

Torricelli, a member of the House Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, said that by prosecuting these dissidents, China risks a congressional vote next year in favor of ending its most-favored-nation trade status, which allows Chinese goods to enter the United States at the same favorable tariff rates as those of most American trading partners.

China’s trade status is not likely to actually be revoked, partly because President Bush opposes any such change, but China will suffer lost opportunities, he said.

“Our eyes are on the future,” he said. “No matter how strongly we feel about events of the past, the (Sino-U.S.) relationship is so critically important that we are desperately looking for any positive signs. Many members of Congress are fully prepared to pass judgment based on actions to be taken, rather than those that have been taken. (But) the fact that additional trials are planned--that others are going to be prosecuted--cannot from any perspective give much reason for hope. . . . This issue is far from settled.”