China Rejects U.N. Ruling on Dissident
China Rejects U.N. Ruling That Democracy Dissident Was Held in Violation of International Law

Audra Ang
The Associated Press

This is a 2001 handout photo showing U.S. -based Chinese pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli, 38, of Boston, who is in police custody in China after sneaking into the country in April 2002 to visit sites of labor unrest. Yang, 38, was reportedly detained in Kunming, China, in the southwestern province of Yunnan. Yang is the founder of the Boston-based Foundation for China in the 21st Century. A United Nations committee on Wednesday, June 4, 2003, ruled that Yang is being held in violation of international law. (AP Photo/Foundation for China in the 21st Century/HO)

The U.N. Human Rights Commission said China failed to give Yang Jianli a fair trial after he was detained in April 2002 on charges of using a false passport. He had been traveling around China visiting political activists and laid-off workers.

"Those accusations against China are groundless," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Thursday. "There is no question of so-called arbitrary detention of Yang in violation of law."

Yang, a 39-year-old mathematician and economist who lives in Brookline, Mass., has not been allowed access to his family or his lawyer since he was detained.

The U.N. Human Rights Commission, in its opinion made public Wednesday, urged Chinese authorities to "take the necessary steps to remedy the situation."

Yang, a Chinese citizen with permanent U.S. residency, is the head of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, a Boston-based group that advocates democracy and rule of law in China.

His wife, Christina Fu, said he returned to China using a friend's passport because he didn't have his own, and that Chinese officials charged him with using fake identification.

Zhang said Yang was under investigation "for illegal border crossings and other criminal acts."

She refused to say whether China would consider releasing Yang.

While the United Nations has no power to enforce the judgment, Yang's family and supporters are hoping it will increase pressure to release him.

"It is absolutely astonishing that the Chinese government has blatantly disregarded Yang Jianli's human rights, and has held him for more than a year," said Jared Genser, the lawyer who filed the U.N. petition on Fu's behalf.

Fu has said that he has been barred from China since 1989, when he traveled to Beijing to take money to pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square. The protests ended in a bloody attack by China's military on June 4, 1989.

China's detention over the past two years of several U.S. citizens and permanent U.S. residents of Chinese descent has been a sticking point in relations. Most were convicted of spying and then expelled.

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Source: "ABC News".