Chicago Tribune
Copyright 2003, Chicago Tribune. All Rights Reserved.

Monday, February 10, 2003

News

Associated Press.

BEIJING -- 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," Xinhuasaid in a two-sentence report. It did not give any details of the case or evidence against Wang.

Wang 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 apparently was 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.

Wang, a Chinese citizen, has permanent residency status in the United States.

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.

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