Released Chinese Dissident Wei Speaks Out for Democracy

NEW YORK, Nov. 21—China's most prominent dissident, Wei Jingsheng, today embarked on his new role as China's most prominent exile by embracing his freedom after 18 years in prison and promising to press the cause of democracy for 1.2 billion Chinese.

"I have waited decades for this chance to exercise my right to free speech, but the Chinese people have been waiting for centuries," he said, reading a statement in Chinese to 200 reporters and supporters at the New York Public Library. "Right now there are several thousand political prisoners still suffering in Chinese Communist Party jails for exercising their freedom of speech. Our conscience as human beings will not allow us to forget them, not even for a single moment."

In his first news conference since he was freed on medical parole from a Chinese prison Sunday, China's best-known political prisoner was in good spirits. Wearing a tan corduroy jacket, red plaid shirt and leather vest, he smiled and waved as an ovation greeted him when he walked into the Celeste Bartos Forum, a magnificent room with marble-inlaid walls and a glass-and-steel dome.

In the same room six months ago, hundreds gathered to hear prominent figures from playwright Arthur Miller to New York Mayor Rudolf W. Giuliani (R) honor Wei -- whose imminent release then seemed improbable -- by reading from recently published letters written by Wei to his family and Chinese leaders during his first jail term between 1979 to 1993. The letters are collected in a book, "The Courage to Stand Alone."

Wei told his audience today not to be discouraged by the weakened Chinese democracy movement. "The future prospect of the Chinese democracy movement is excellent," he said. "After a low tide, there is always a high tide of democracy."

Although Wei looked pale, and his eyes were puffy, he spoke with the bluntness, modesty and humor that characterize his published works. He quipped "sorry" -- the only word he has learned to say in English, he said -- when the moderator rebuked him for answering too many questions from one reporter. When another reporter posed a question in Cantonese, stumping the Mandarin-only interpreters, Wei joked that the two Chinese dialects were as different as two languages. But after half an hour of questions, his face sweating slightly, Wei cut short the session because he said he was tired, weak and dizzy.

"I certainly plan to go back [to China]," he said, speaking through interpreter Andrew Nathan, a Columbia University political science professor who wrote the forward to Wei's book. "In fact, I never intended to leave," he said. But he was given no choice, Wei said, because authorities told him the only way he would be released on medical parole would be to seek treatment in the United States. He thanked people and governments around the world for their efforts to free him.

Asked about remarks by Chinese Justice Minister Xiao Yang, who reportedly said Wei would be required to serve out the rest of his second long jail sentence if he returned to his homeland, Wei replied: "I'd be willing to go back under almost any circumstances. But nobody would like to go back to go to jail."

Wei's release came about two weeks after a Washington summit between President Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. Western governments have sought for years to secure Wei's freedom. In the four months preceding the summit, U.S. officials put intense pressure on China to free Wei.

Wei said he was "not too clear on the reasons for my release." He added: "I consider my release to be only a small victory for human rights and democracy."

But Sidney Jones, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch/Asia, one of three human rights groups that organized the news conference, today said the credit for his release goes mostly to Wei, whom she described as "tough, funny, stubborn, defiant, principled, irreverent," all the traits that "define a survivor and ensure that he outlasts his oppressors."

Wei, 47, who has spent all but six months since 1979 in labor camps or prison, said confinement taught him essential lessons about life.

"For human beings, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome," he said. "Rely on yourself, and you can overcome anything."

Jones and others also said the lesson of Wei's release is that "if the pressure is sustained enough, and intensive enough, and global enough, anything is possible."

Although Wei said he intended to participate in "all sorts of democracy activities," he was vague about his immediate plans. Viking Penguin, which published his book, has opened a bank account for him for all royalties from publication. "He really has money in the bank," said Wendy Wolf, senior editor at Viking. Since his release, she said, there have been "strong reorders" for the book, which has sold between 14,000 and 15,000 copies.

Wei deflected questions about Tibet, Taiwan and his prison conditions. Family members and human rights groups have said he was beaten by other inmates, and was under constant surveillance in a glass-walled cell. Wei said he planned to write about his prison conditions.

Wei is being treated at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center here, following four days in Detroit, where he arrived after being freed from China.

Physicians at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital discharged him Thursday, saying his medical condition had improved and that potentially life-threatening conditions are under control. Wei is on medication to control high blood pressure, and doctors have also put him on a low-salt diet and told him to stop smoking.

Wei was accompanied by his youngest sister, Wei Shanshan, who lives in Hamburg, Germany, and an entourage of human rights activists. Others in the audience included former U.S. ambassador to Beijing Winston Lord; his wife, the author Bette Bao Lord; and Columbia University provost Jonathan Cole.

"He's so humane. And so human," Winston Lord told reporters.

The former electrician at the Beijing Zoo was first jailed in 1979 for advocating democratic reform during the short-lived Democracy Wall movement.

Released in September 1993, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2000 Olympics, he was arrested again in 1994 and sentenced in 1995 to 14 years in prison for plotting to overthrow the government.