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“WEI JINGSHENG” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S4381-S4382 on May 13, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WEI JINGSHENG
Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, today is the publication date of a book of prison letters by Wei Jingsheng, ``The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters From Prison and Other Writings.'' Wei's book is the subject of a May 5 editorial in the New York Times; I ask unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, Wei is China's most prominent dissident. Perhaps I should say that he is China's most prominent dissident in jail. In any event, there are no active dissidents in China, according to this year's State Department human rights report--they are all in jail, or silent.
Wei became famous for his powerful, articulate statements during the Democracy Wall movement. After his release in 1993, he returned his advocacy of democratic reform. After 6 months, he was rearrested and held incommunicado for almost 2 years before being sentenced to another 14-year prison term in 1996.
Wei shows no concern for himself. His health is poor, threatened by heart problems. Yet he continues to stand up to the Chinese Government, demanding freedom and democracy for the people of China.
Wei's letters reveal courage in the face of a brutal and immoral regime. His example is bound to humble any one who dares take for granted the freedoms enjoyed by the American people.
I hope that, somehow, Wei will learn of the enormous respect and support he has from the American people. I urge Senators to join in calling upon the Chinese Government to release Wei and immediately provide him with the medical treatment he so badly needs.
Exhibit 1
Letters From a Chinese Jail--The Blunt Demands of Wei Jingsheng
(By Tina Rosenberg)
For nearly 20 years, the Chinese government has sought to silence one of the world's most important political prisoners, Wei Jingsheng. Once an electrician in the Beijing Zoo, Mr. Wei is the strongest voice of China's democracy movement. He has spent all but six months of the last 18 years in prisons and labor camps, most in solitary confinement in conditions that would have killed a less stubborn man long ago and may soon kill Mr. Wei, who is 46 and very ill.
Now serving a second long sentence, he is watched around the clock by non-political criminal prisoners who insure he does not put pen to paper. But during his first imprisonment he was permitted to write letters on certain topics to his family, prison authorities and China's leaders. Most were never sent. But they have now been translated and published. They form a remarkable body of Chinese political writing.
The book, ``The Courage to Stand Alone,'' is published by Viking. It shows why the Chinese Government is so afraid of Mr. Wei. His weapon is simplicity. Unlike other Chinese activists, Mr. Wei does not worry about tailoring his argument to his audience and does not indulge in the Chinese intellectual tradition of flattering the powerful. He does not worry about being seen as pro-Western, or a traitor to China. He writes as if what is obvious to him--that China needs democratic freedoms--should be clear to anyone.
``Dear Li Peng: When you've finished reading this letter, please pass it on to Zhao Ziyang and Deng Xiaoping,'' begins one typical letter to three top Chinese leaders. ``I would like to offer several concrete suggestions.'' The first suggestion: ``take great strides to implement a democratic government as quickly as possible.''
He wrote this letter on May 4, 1989, one month before the massacre in Tiananmen Square, ordered by Li Peng and Deng Xiaoping.
Although he was not allowed to write of his worst mistreatment, his letters describe his health and request books, a heater, medicine or a hutch to breed rabbits when he is in a labor camp. The Government expected Mr. Wei to show he was being ``re-educated.'' Instead, he wrote essays on democratic restructuring of the Government.
Mr. Wei has always been uncompromising. In 1978, Mr. Deng was fighting for control of the leadership and encouraged reformist thinking. The activists created a Democracy Wall along a highway outside Beijing, where writers put up posters with their thoughts. Mr. Wei wrote the boldest poster, a tract arguing for real democracy and criticizing Mr. Deng, who was then revered by the activists. Mr. Wei then founded an independent magazine. He was arrested in March 1979, given a show trial and sentenced to 15 years.
He was released six months before completing his sentence, as part of China's bid to win the Olympics in 2000. He refused to leave before getting back letters the prison authorities had confiscated. Once free, he immediately resumed his work for democracy. He was rearrested, and after a 20-month incommunicado imprisonment he was sentenced to another 14 years.
Although censorship insured that few Chinese heard of Mr. Wei after 1979, he has remained a touchstone of the democracy movement. In January 1989, Fang Lizhi, the astrophysicist, wrote a public letter to Mr. Deng asking for amnesty for political prisoners, mentioning only Mr. Wei by name. That letter touched off more letters and petitions and was one of the sparks of the student movement and the occupation of Tiananmen Square.
There is no visible dissent in China today. Some of the activists went into exile, many were arrested, others gave up politics and turned their talents to commerce.
The moral force of Mr. Wei's writing recalls the prison letters of other famous dissidents, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s ``Letter From the Birmingham Jail,'' Adam Michnik's ``Letters From Prison'' and Vaclav Havel's
``Letters to Olga.'' Mr. Wei's letters are less eloquent, however. He is not a man of words, and he was probably not writing with an eye to publication.
But the most important thing the others had that Mr. Wei does not is widespread international support. Mr. King, Mr. Michnik and Mr. Havel knew that people all over the world were looking out for them and their governments were under pressure to free them, treat them well and heed their cause.
This security is as important to a political prisoner's survival as food and water, and Mr. Wei and his fellow Chinese dissidents do not have it. Their names are not widely known. While some American and other officials have brought them up during talks with Chinese leaders, in general the outside world treats Beijing officials with the deference due business partners.
Today Mr. Wei suffers from life-threatening heart disease. Because of a neck problem, he cannot lift his head. All indications are that he has not seen a doctor in more than a year. He is due to be released in 2009--if he lives that long.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
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