The Illusion of Benevolence

Are China’s authorities getting soft on political crime?

Yes and no--mostly no. By Chinese standards, recent sentences meted out to dissidents who participated in the 1989 Tian An Mien Square demonstrations were lenient. Punishment for “counter revolutionary propaganda and incitement” included a four-year prison term for student leader Wang Dan, 23, who was No. 1 on the government’s most wanted list of student activists. The government said his sentence was light because he showed “repentance.” Veteran activist Ren Wanding, 46--presumably less penitent--got seven years, while Bao Zunxin, a historian and writer, got five.

The sentences--time served already will be counted--were far less severe than the 15-year prison terms received by some participants in the 1979 democracy movement. In another display of leniency, Beijing released 66 other dissidents, including social critic Liu Xiaobo, who had returned to China from Columbia University to participate in the 1989 protests.

In the Chinese legal system, guilt is determined primarily by police and prosecutors under the control of the Communist Party, while severity of punishment is a trial issue. In sensitive political trials, the entire process is believed to be highly scripted--in this case to placate U.S. criticism of Beijing’s human rights record.

Thus it’s no surprise that Beijing waited until now--20 months after the bloody, June, 1989, government crackdown on Tian An Mien Square demonstrators--to hold the trials when the rest of the world is preoccupied with the Persian Gulf. American Embassy officials, journalists and other observers were banned from the latest proceedings in Beijing.

The U.S. State Department rightly expressed disappointment at the sentences. Absent any evidence otherwise, the department said “ . . . these convictions appear to violate the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the right of political expression.”

Beijing’s illusion of benevolence should not delude the world into thinking that Chinese authorities have softened their hard line. Just last week, they reiterated any challenge to communism would not be tolerated. Meanwhile, other dissidents remain in captivity.