The Washington Post

Prisoner Lists Now an Aid to U.S.-China Ties

Beijing Seen as Newly Responsive To Formal Approach to Rights Talks

By Philip P. Pan

Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, October 18, 2002; Page A20

BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- When President Bush last met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, a senior State Department official passed a list of 13 jailed dissidents and other prisoners to a Chinese counterpart and delivered a message: If China wanted better relations with the United States, it should let these people go.

The Chinese government responded in the following months by releasing two of the individuals on the list. They were Jigme Sangpo, a Tibetan teacher who was one of China's longest-held political prisoners, and David Chow, a U.S. businessman jailed eight years ago on questionable fraud charges. Today, eight days before Bush and Jiang are scheduled to meet again, China released a third person on the list, a young Tibetan nun named Ngawang Sangdrol who was imprisoned in 1992 at the age of 15.

Although China often frees political prisoners as a gesture before summits and other critical meetings, Western diplomats and human rights activists say the Bush administration's formal use of prisoner lists -- and the Chinese government's willingness to respond -- represent a new, more businesslike approach to formerly contentious human rights talks.

The United States first presented China with prisoner lists after the crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. It continued doing so through the early 1990s. But China complained about interference in its "internal affairs" and often provided scant information about the prisoners in response. In the late 1990s, as relations soured in disputes over Taiwan and the mistaken U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict, the exchange of prisoner lists essentially ended.

Then last October, as China sought to present itself as a partner in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, American diplomats presented Beijing with a list of 74 prisoners. They received information on 68, and nearly 30 have since been released or had their sentences reduced, according to John Kamm, an activist from San Francisco who compiled a database of 6,500 Chinese political prisoners and helped the State Department draft the list.

The Chinese response is part of a larger trend over the past two years in which the government has begun routinely responding to prisoner lists with detailed information and occasional early releases or sentence reductions, according to diplomats from Western nations and nongovernmental organizations.

"I think they realize now that this works to their advantage, that it's good public relations," said a diplomat involved in human rights talks with China. "They have even started notifying us in advance before anyone on our list is released."

Kamm said the Chinese government has provided foreign diplomats with information on about 250 prisoners and that his research shows these prisoners are twice as likely to be released early. Several former prisoners have also reported receiving better treatment after being included on lists given to the Chinese by foreign governments.

Some critics have derided use of prisoner lists as "hostage diplomacy" that rewards the Chinese government for freeing people it never should have arrested and helping only a handful of the thousands unjustly imprisoned in China. But Kamm said computer databases have weakened that criticism.

"The old argument about this being hostage politics and helping only a few people no longer holds," Kamm said. "We now have the technology available to inquire about and help large numbers of people."

In its talks with Chinese officials, the Bush administration still focuses on a small number of prisoners, bringing up the same cases again and again and urging visiting congressmen and other officials to do so as well. "We're very interested in being consistent, and not having them hear different things," said one senior U.S. official.

Clark T. Randt Jr., the U.S. ambassador in Beijing, has named the same five political prisoners in all his recent public speeches: Xu Wenli, founder of the China Democracy Party; Rebiya Kadeer, an ethnic Uighur businesswoman; Su Zhimin, an underground Catholic bishop; Jiang Weiping, an investigative journalist; and Ngawang Sangdrol, the Tibetan nun who was released today.

Visiting U.S. officials have raised the same cases, as well as other prisoners on the list presented during Bush's visit in February: Xu Zerong, a scholar jailed for his research on the Korean War; Han Chunsheng, a farmer who wrote letters to Voice of America; labor leader Liu Jingsheng; and U.S. businessmen Fong Fuming and Liu Yaping.

In a statement, Randt said the prisoners on the U.S. lists "represent broader categories of persons of concern" and are selected with input from Congress and nongovernmental organizations. He said the lists are "important in generating concrete results in the ongoing U.S.-China dialogue on human rights."

Diplomats said the Chinese government has been willing to accommodate the American requests because prisoner releases are a relatively easy way to demonstrate its desire to improve bilateral relations. "They are unwilling or unable to make real, visible progress on human rights issues like freedom of speech, religion, rule of law or the status of Tibet, so they turn to these lists," said one diplomat. "With the States, the releases are particularly useful because the bilateral relationship is so important to them."

Next week's summit could be the last for Jiang, who is scheduled to retire later this year, and the Chinese government appears determined to make it a success. At a briefing this week, a senior Foreign Ministry official, He Yafei, said Jiang's visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Tex., "indicates a closeness of not only a personal relationship between the two leaders, but also a mature and close relationship between the two countries."

Consultations about Iraq and North Korea are expected to dominate the meeting, but the two leaders are also expected to finalize an agreement on U.S. technical assistance in customs inspections and set a date for another round of human rights talks.

Chinese officials said they do not expect any problem in discussions about Taiwan, the self-governing island China claims as part of its territory. "We have sensed a change in their tone," said a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official, referring to recent statements by U.S. officials opposing a unilateral declaration of independence by Taiwan.

The official said Jiang will press Bush to resume military exchanges with the People's Liberation Army. He said the two governments remain at odds in arms control talks, but Jiang will press for an end to sanctions barring U.S. companies from launching satellites on Chinese rockets.

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