Opposition Denounce Arrest Of Dissident
(AFP | Beijing | December 20, 2002)
Two Chinese political opposition groups in exile on Friday protested the arrest of dissident Wang Bingzhang, announced earlier by the Chinese authorities. In a joint statement, the China Democracy and Justice Party (CDJP) and the China Democracy Party (CDP), both banned from China, asked "why, if Chinese communist authorities had researched Wang Bingzhang between May 1999 and June 2002, they did not do so publicly?"
According to the two parties, the accusations of spying for Taiwan levelled against Wang, a permanent US resident, were fabricated and result from the fact that Wang recognizes the Taipei authorities like the Chinese government.
The two parties both accuse Beijing of falsely incriminating dissidents and separatists from Tibet or Xinjiang province, accusing them of being extremists as part of the anti-terrorism campaign launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Wang, a leader of CDP, had said that "the people have the right to overthrow the government in violent revolution," the parties noted in their statement, which did not mean that he himself had committed acts of violence.
They said "the criminal accusations of espionage and violent terrorist acts brought against Wang Bingzhang show that the Chinese authorities are preparing to detain him for life and have no intention of setting him free." Wang Bingzhang, as well as dissidents Yue Wu and Zhang Qi, disappeared at the end of June on the Sino-Vietnamese border before falling into the hands of Chinese police on July 3, China's state news agency reported.
Yue Wu and Zhang Qi were released.
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