China activist plans hunger strike during Wen tripABS-CBN News Saturday, December 6, 2003 BEIJING - A jailed Chinese dissident plans to stage a hunger strike to coincide with a trip by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to the United States, a U.S.-based rights group said on Saturday. Wang Bingzhang, a U.S. resident who was handed a life sentence on terrorism and espionage charges by a Chinese court in February, aimed to protest against his solitary confinement at the Shaoguan prison in Guangdong province, it said in a statement. "From solitary confinement, Dr. Wang is calling on the leaders of America to stand with him and to demand his unconditional release," it said. China frequently times releases of dissidents to coincide with important trips abroad or visit by world leaders. The move by Wang, a U.S. green card holder in his mid-50s who family members have said renounced his Chinese citizenship, came as another rights group lobbied for the release of a second U.S.-based democracy activist. Washington-based Freedom Now called on Beijing to release permanent U.S. resident Yang Jianli, arrested in China in April 2002 and put on trial in August on charges of spying for political arch rival Taiwan. "We believe that the time as come for him to be allowed to return to his family in the United States," Jared Genser of Freedom Now told Reuters by telephone. The Chinese authorities accused Yang of entering China on a friend's passport and traveling for a week with a fake identity card - mainly to observe unrest in the northeastern rust belt. Two letters -- one destined for U.S. President George W. Bush and the other for Wen -- have been drawn up by key members of Congress to seek the former Harvard graduate's freedom. Eight U.S. Senators signed the letter to Bush, calling on him to raise Yang's case in a meeting with Wen on Tuesday. Some 32 members of Congress had signed the letter to Wen, Genser said. Last month, China released a young cyber dissident known as the "stainless steel mouse" after detaining her for more than a year for criticizing the government. Liu Di, a former psychology major at Beijing Normal University, wrote political satire about the ruling Communist Party and called for the release of cyber dissidents in Internet chatrooms. Wen is due to meet Bush early next week mainly to discuss issues related to the island of Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province, and trade. ($1=8.276 yuan)
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