Surrey / North Delta Leader

Sunday, November 2, 2003

Cadman condemns Canada’s inaction on Chinese dissident

Family of imprisoned man concerned with his health

Dan Ferguson

Staff Reporter

Surry-North MP Chuck Cadman, the Opposition justice critic, has slammed Prime Minister Jean Chretien for failing to raise the matter of an imprisoned human rights activist-- Dr. Wang Bingzhang-- during his visit to China.

Wang, whose parents and younger sister live in Surrey, was sentenced to life in a Chinese prison following his arrest in July.

“He (Wang) is being punished for advancing the cause of democracy,” Cadman told the House of Commons.

A Chinese court convicted Wang in February of “organizing and leading a terrorist group” and passing state secrets to Taiwan.

Wang’s supporters say the charges were manufactured to muzzle a leading dissident.

Wang was a medical student in china when he began speaking out against the Communist regime and was jailed twice. He went into exile in Canada in 1979, and later moved to New York, where he published the pro-democracy magazine China Spring and organized the Chinese Alliance for Democracy.

Wang and two other dissidents were kidnapped during a trip to Vietnam and taken across the border into china—a event some critics say was arranged by the Chinese government.

“We believe he was set up,” said Timothy Cooper, a spokesman for the Canadian Worldrights organization that is lobbying for Wang’s release.

Dr. Wang’s sister, Linda, told The Leader her 55-year-old brother appeared in poor health when she visited him recently in prison.

They were unable to talk openly, she said, because prison authorities record and monitor the conversations, conducted with a phone behind a glass wall, interrupting if conversation veers away from family matters.

“He (my brother) looks very bad,” she said—gaunt and tired.

His arrest has been very hard on Dr. Wang’s 85-year-old father and 83-year-old mother, who live with the sister in Surrey. “They cry every day,” she said. “He is the oldest son. In Chinese culture, they should be living with him.”

In an open letter to the Chinese government, Wang Bingzhang’s parents asked Chinese Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin to release their son. “We earnestly request you not to hurt our son,” said the letter.

“We are old people—and hope our son can return to our side at an early date.”

In July, the United Nations’ Arbitrary Detention Working Group declared Dr. Wang’s detention to be arbitrary and in violation of international law. It found no basis for charges of espionage or terrorism against him.