Dissident Challenges China Premier [2] (Associated Press)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Exiled dissident Wang Bingzhang urged new Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Sunday to undertake political reforms to complement his pledge of economic restructuring.

''If Zhu Rongji and the third generation of Chinese leaders really want to do something for the Chinese people and leave something for posterity, they must execute political reform,'' Wang told a news conference in Taipei.

''There is no other route to take,'' he added.

Zhu has promised to keep the Chinese economy growing at 8 percent a year and inflation within 3 percent while overhauling debt-ridden state industries and slashing the government bureaucracy by half.

But the premier has not proposed political reforms, and has ruled out a re- evaluation of the violent suppression of democracy protests in 1989.

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

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

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.

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

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.

On Saturday, Wang challenged the Chinese premier to a battle of wits, saying not even the much-lauded Zhu will succeed in keeping pro-democracy forces out of China.

Zhu is considered a political pragmatic. His apparent intelligence and frankness 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 in an interview with Associated Press Television in Taipei.

''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.

Wang said China's borders were so long that the government could not stop members of his 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.


return to In the News