Copyright (c) 2003, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Sunday, February 9, 2003

BEIJING (AP)--A Chinese court convicted U.S.-based dissident Wang Bingzhang on spying and terrorism charges Monday and sentenced him to life in prison, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Wang, 55, was arrested after police said they found him tied up in a temple July 3. However, pro-democracy activists suggested he was abducted in Vietnam by Chinese agents after he secretly met with Chinese labor leaders in Hanoi.

Wang was convicted by a court in the southern city of Shenzhen of "espionage, (and) organizing and leading a terrorist group," Xinhua said in a two-sentence report. A woman who answered the telephone at the court said no one was available to give any more information.

China said last month that it had verified that Wang sold state secrets to a spy organization in Taiwan beginning in the early 1980s. Police also accused Wang of publishing articles on the Internet advocating terrorism.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Foreign Ministry said they had no immediate comment on the case.

Wang's daughter said his family didn't know yet what their next step would be.

"I just heard the news. We don't know what we're going to do at this point. I'm going to talk to my family," Wang Qingyan said by telephone from San Gabriel, California.

The Free China Movement, an activist group in Washington, said Wang was innocent and appealed for the U.S. government to "exert all its influence" to win his release.

"The sentence demonstrates the barbarous character of the Chinese government," said Timothy Cooper, international director for the group. "We believe that he is innocent of all charges that he's been convicted of and we believe he should be freed." HK Activists Protest Wang's Conviction

In Hong Kong, activists tried to leave a letter protesting Wang's conviction at the central Chinese government's liaison office, but were blocked by about 50 police who surrounded the building, according to a member of the group.

The group of about 10 activists scuffled briefly with police, said activist Lau San-ching. He said they burned the protest letter after being blocked from delivering it.

Wang Bingzhang was visiting Hanoi with two other dissidents when they were reported missing in June.

Chinese authorities say they found all three in southern China's Guangxi region, which borders Vietnam, while they were investigating a kidnapping case. Wang was apparently taken to Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, where he was formally charged Dec. 5.

The Chinese government has said the other two dissidents - Yue Wu and Zhang Qi - were cleared of involvement in Wang's activities.

Xinhua had earlier said Wang's trial was closed because it involved state secrets.

Wang, a Chinese citizen, has permanent residency status in the U.S.

He was a medical student in China when he started speaking out against the communist government and was jailed twice. He went into exile in Canada in 1979 and, in the 1980s, lived in New York, where he published the pro-democracy magazine China Spring and organized the Chinese Alliance for Democracy.

Wang slipped into China in 1998 without permission, saying he planned to organize a Chinese Democracy and Justice Party to press for free elections and civil liberties. He was caught and deported.

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