1/27/04 Agence Fr.-Presse
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Tuesday, January 27, 2004
Hunger strike helps improve conditions for jailed Chinese dissident - report.
US-based dissident Wang Bingzhang, who is serving a life term in a Chinese jail, has seen his conditions improve following a hunger strike last month, a rights group said Tuesday. After the hunger strike, which coincided with a US visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the time Wang has to spend in compulsory political study sessions has been cut by a third, Washington-based organization
Worldrights reported.
Wang, who is being kept in solitary confinement at the Shaoguan prison in southern Guangdong province, now also experiences fewer delays in the mail he receives from his family, the group said.
Wang, who had lived in the United States since the late 1980s, was sentenced to life imprisonment in February last year by a court in Shenzhen after being convicted of espionage and leading a terrorist group.
He was found guilty of providing intelligence to Taiwan between 1982 and 1990 and obtaining "secret military material illegally" in exchange for money.
China admitted in December 2002 it had arrested Wang, six months after he disappeared.
Friends and rights groups claim he was kidnapped by Chinese agents from Vietnam near the China border, where he tried to meet Chinese labor activists, and was brought into the country.
ph/nj.