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Chinese dissident released following
12-year jail term
AP, BEIJING
A co-founder of a would-be Chinese opposition political party was released
yesterday after completing a 12-year prison term for endangering state security.
Qin Yongmin (¯³¥Ã±Ó) said he was transported to a police station in his home city
of Wuhan, Hubei Province, early in the morning. Officers confiscated his prison
writings and warned him not to speak to reporters or meet other dissidents
before allowing him to return home, Qin told reporters in a telephone interview.
¡§I tried to tell them it was illegal, but they just stole everything I had
written,¡¨ Qin said.
Qin was given one of the harshest sentences among the organizers of the China
Democracy Party who were charged with endangering state security after seeking
to register the group in 1998.
The ruling Chinese Communist Party brooks no opposition and the country¡¦s
beleaguered dissidents have been under especially heavy pressure following the
awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned democracy activist Liu Xiaobo
(¼B¾åªi).
Liu¡¦s wife, Liu Xia (¼BÁø), and many of his colleagues are under a form of
undeclared house arrest, a condition that isn¡¦t expected to end until after the
Dec. 10 award ceremony in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
Qin, 57, has a history of political activism dating back three decades and had
already spent a number of years in detention.
His punishment underscores the government¡¦s hostility toward political reform,
even as the economy continues to develop and Chinese society opens further to
outside influences.
Two other co-founders of the China Democracy Party, Wang Youcai (¤ý¦³¤~) and Xu
Wenli (®}¤å¥ß), were sentenced to lengthy prison terms but were exiled to the US
after a few years of confinement following intense diplomatic pressure from
Washington.
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