Dissident Challenges China Premier [1] (Associated Press)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Exiled dissident Wang Bingzhang has challenged China's new premier to a battle of wits, saying even the much-lauded Zhu Rongji will not succeed in keeping pro-democracy forces out of China.

Speaking in Taipei late Saturday after arriving from the Portuguese enclave of Macau, Wang said China's borders were so long that the government could not stop members of his newly founded Chinese Democracy and Justice Party from slipping in and working for democratic change.

''It's just so easy. ... Can they really block it off? We have so many ways'' of entering, Wang said.

China shares land borders with 14 countries, plus Macau.

Wang, a leading figure in China's exiled democracy movement, was refused entry to Hong Kong Friday when he tried to re-enter from Macau, which is next to Hong Kong.

He had traveled to the region from New York to meet mainland China-based members of his party.

Hong Kong authorities said they suspected Wang was traveling on false papers. They denied reports China's government pressured them to keep him out.

The Chinese Democracy and Justice Party, formed in February in New York, opposes the Chinese Communist Party's monopoly on power.

It aims to build a China-wide network and hopes eventually to challenge the Communists in open and democratic elections.

Wang earlier ended his nearly two-decade exile when he slipped into China in January under an alias to help forge ties between his party and China-based dissidents.

Captured by Chinese police in the eastern city of Bengbu last month, he was immediately deported to the United States.

The quick action apparently was intended to minimize any trouble between Beijing and Washington at a time of improving ties

Speaking in an interview with Associated Press Television in Taipei, Wang challenged Zhu Rongji to try to stop his democracy movement.

Zhu is considered a political pragmatic. His apparent intelligence and franknesss have charmed many Chinese and foreign observers.

''If his Cabinet tries to block overseas democrats from entering China to work together with mainland Chinese democrats, we can break through the blockade,'' Wang said.

''Let's see who can do a prettier job, who will be the ultimate winner. ... I am confident that we will defeat the totalitarian, collective government and that we will be able to return to mainland China,'' Wang said.


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