China Frees Dissident Physician

BEIJING, July 20 -- China has released the dissident physician who became a national hero for exposing the government's coverup of the SARS epidemic, sending him home Monday night after 49 days of confinement aimed at pressuring him to disavow a letter in which he denounced the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Jiang Yanyong, 72, a semi-retired surgeon in the People's Liberation Army who had briefly become China's most famous political prisoner, was returned to his apartment in western Beijing about 11 p.m. and appeared in good health, his wife, Hua Zhongwei, said by telephone Tuesday.

She said she and her husband had been ordered by the Chinese military not to speak to reporters, and she declined to discuss the circumstances of his release. But asked how she felt, she laughed and said, "You can guess by how I sound."

A person close to the family said Jiang succeeded in resisting the demands of his jailers despite seven weeks of intense indoctrination sessions. The closest Jiang came to backing down was a statement in which he conceded that others might have used his Tiananmen letter for their own purposes, but he also wrote that he should not be held responsible for other people's actions, the person said.

Jiang's release represented a remarkable retreat by the most senior leaders of China's ruling Communist Party, who appeared to have ordered his detention and then backed down in the face of rising international and domestic criticism.

"He sounds good. He's in good spirits," said Jiang Rui, the doctor's daughter, who lives in California. She said that she had spoken to her father on the phone but that security officials were in the room with him and monitoring the conversation. She also said it was unclear whether he would be allowed to leave his apartment without permission or supervision.

"I'm happy he's home, but I don't know if he has any freedom at this point," she said. "I don't want to use the word 'free' yet. I would just say he's home. I tried to ask if he could move around freely, but it doesn't sound like it. It sounds to me like it's not over yet."

There was no comment Tuesday from the Chinese government. Jiang Yanyong was never charged with a crime, and the government had said only that the military was "helping and educating him" because he had violated military discipline.

Military officials have warned Jiang that his release does not mean his case is closed, a person close to the family said, but they have also indicated that he can resume giving medical advice to his patients. For his part, Jiang has expressed an interest in devoting his energies to China's AIDS crisis, the person said.

The decision to detain Jiang was a risky one because of the popular reputation for honesty and integrity he earned during the SARS coverup. In 2003, two weeks after a letter he wrote to China's state-controlled media blowing the whistle was leaked to foreign news media, the government fired the health minister and mayor of Beijing, sharply raised its official count of SARS cases and launched a campaign to alert the public of the disease and stop its spread.

Jiang then used the renown he had gained for another cause. In late February, he sent a letter to members of the Chinese leadership urging them to admit that the party's 1989 military assault on student-led, pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square was wrong. The letter, in which he described treating scores of wounded civilians at his hospital on the night of the crackdown, was delivered to foreign media during the annual meeting of China's legislature.

While the party has acknowledged other errors, including the destructiveness of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, it has refused to admit any mistake in its handling of the Tiananmen protests, in part because doing so might prompt new demands for democratic reform.

China's military chief and former president, Jiang Zemin, rose to power in the leadership purge that followed the Tiananmen crackdown, and a source familiar with the party's decision-making process said the nation's top military body, which he chairs, gave the order to detain the doctor. Jiang's successor as president and head of the Communist Party, Hu Jintao, serves as one of the vice chairmen of the body, the Central Military Commission.

Jiang Yanyong was detained on June 1, just days before the 15th anniversary of the massacre. Military and security officials seized him while he was on his way to the U.S. Embassy to apply for a visa to visit his daughter, then transported him in an armored vehicle to a remote military facility on the outskirts of Beijing, sources familiar with the situation said.