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China Blocks Dissident Lawyers From Beijing Dinner Hosted by Congressmen
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On Tuesday, a Chinese court sentenced a reporter for a U.S.-based online news site to four years in prison on charges of public disorder and possession of illegal weapons. Sun Lin, who used the pen name Jie Mu, wrote regularly on sensitive topics such as crime and police brutality for the Chinese-language site Boxun.
One of the lawyers invited to the Sunday dinner, Li Fangping, said three police officers had come to his house Sunday and prevented him from attending. The officers followed him wherever he went through Tuesday evening, Li said.
"I heard that after the Congress members board their plane, then they will stop following me," Li said. "I can't see the reason why they are doing this."
Smith said he and Wolf had decided to travel to Beijing when there was still time before the Olympics for China to demonstrate its commitment to human rights. They presented a list of 734 political prisoners to Li Zhaoxing, a former foreign minister who now chairs the foreign affairs committee of the National People's Congress, and appealed to him to work for their release.
"These dialogues are fine as long as they are not just public relations efforts," Smith said. "China has to have deeds to match its words."
Liu, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said he had not seen the congressmen's list, but that presenting it was "not consistent with the purpose of their visit."
Researcher Liu Liu contributed to this report.
