TOKYO, Dec 28 Kyodo selecteded ed...

TOKYO, Dec 28 Kyodo

selecteded editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

PLAYING WITH HUMAN RIGHTS (The Japan Times, an English-language daily)

China is formerly again engaging in human rights diplomacy. This week the command in Beijing released dissident Xu Wenli, single of the country's principally famous human rights activists. It is tempting to applaud this long-overdue unfolding but the truth is that Mr Xu should not have been in jail in the first place. Worse, his release is more trial impression of China's readiness to use human beings as pawns in its attempts to forge better relations with the United States. This practice must stop.

Mr Xu now in his late 50 has worn out more than 16 of the last 21 years in prison as a inference of his political activities. He was first jailed in 1982 after being convicted of ''counterrevolutionary activities''; in fact, his crime was advocating more political freedom for Chinese and participating in the Democracy Wall move of 1979. He was in prison for 12 years and was released in 1993

Unbowed, Mr Xu continued to campaign for more freedom. He was arrested again five years later, this time for ''the crime'' of helping to organize an opposition democracy party. The Chinese guidance moved quickly to crush the fledgling mental action and arrested and imprisoned its go to the bottoms and supporters. He was charged with ''secretly planning the founding of the so-called Beijing and Tianjin regional Party Committee of the China Democracy Party, with the design of subverting state power.'' His trial lasted and nothing else 3 1/2 hours.

Mr Xu was diagnosed with hepatitis shortly after returning to prison. The authorities were prepared to impediment him go into exile abroad beneath the terms of a medical parole, nevertheless he refused the offer. As his condition worsened, compressing on the Chinese government to release him increased, as did constraining force on Mr. Xu, by his family, to accept exile abroad.

Mr Xu's release owes a great deal of to the sustained pressure of human rights activists around the world, for whom he is a placard child, and the U sway Earlier this month, Mr. Lorne Cramer, the ranking human rights official at the U State Department, visited China and squeezeed for Mr. Xu's release along with that of thousands of other Chinese detained onward human rights charges. By common estimate, 3,000 people have been charged with ''state security offenses'' -- previously known as ''counterrevolutionary activities,'' in turn round a shorthand for demanding more political freedom -- and 90 percent of them have been sent to prison. The other cofounder of the China Democracy Party remain in jail.

Human rights activists credit Mr Xu's release to Beijing's desire for better relations with the U Mr Cramer's visit marked the resumption of an official human rights dialogue between the U and China. During his visit, Mr Cramer reportedly pushed China to release more than 200 political prisoners. Earlier this week, China did release couple labor leaders detained earlier in the year for organizing worker avers According to Mr. Cramer, China has also agreed to reissue invitations to the UN special rapporteurs forward torture, religious freedom and the arbitrary detention working group

There is affect that Chinese concessions come at a high price. For example, human rights disposes worry that Washington was too quick to add the East Turkestan Islamic move a group that wants independence for Xinjiang, single in kind of China's western provinces, to its list of terror organizations. They fear the act upon will justify Beijing's crackdown upon dissent in the province and elsewhere. and nothing else days after Mr. Cramer visited Xinjiang, a local political leader called for an intensified effort against separatists and religious extremists.

Although the U has specifically denied endorsing the Chinese crackdown against dissidents, it continues nonetheless. This week's releases pursue a string of arrests. They include a number of individuals whose alone crime was posting prodemocracy articles forward the Internet or signing a petition addressed to the Communist Party Congres in November that called for a reversal of the official verdict damning the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests

Clearly, Beijing's release of high-profile activists cannot be mistaken for genuine heed for human rights. The government's conditioning of release with foreign exile is proof that it is not serious about making progres in this field. Worse, China has a ready endow of dissidents that it can use for leverage when dealing with the West.

To Beijing, human rights campaigners are nuisances to be crushed or used as circumstances dictate. That is the reality of China's ''respect'' for human rights. It takes frequently of the joy out of celebrating Mr Xu's release.

(Dec 28)

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group