Two Chinese dissidents who served more than a year in jail for supporting the outlawed China Democracy Party have decided to exile themselves to the United States, sources close to them said Saturday.
Cai Guihua and Fu Shenping will leave Shanghai Sunday for New York via Los Angeles, Fu's wife Zhu Juhong told AFP.
She explained the two democracy campaigners chose exile after being harassed by the police since their release.
"They were forced to leave," she said. "Who can ever leave their homeland voluntarily?
"They had no freedom of movement in China after they got out of prison and couldn't see the people they wanted. Their families were worried about their safety."
Cai and Fu obtained passports from the Chinese authorities and then American visas at the beginning of the month, added Zhu.
The two dissidents were freed this year after being sentenced for common law offences. They maintained they had been framed by the police.
Cai, 45, was arrested in October 1998 with another dissident Han Lifa, officially for visiting prostitutes, after he set up a branch of the democracy party in Shanghai. He was sentenced without trial to one year of re-education through labor in July 1999.
Fu, 50, was arrested in January 1999 and sentenced in August of the same year to 12 months in prison for assault after he tried to raise funds for the party.
His brother, Fu Shenqi, is secretary general for the Chinese Democracy and Justice Party, an opposition movement based in the United States.
Fu and Cai were the first Chinese dissidents accused of common law crimes to have obtained visas to travel to the US.
A dozen opposition activists have been imprisoned by the communist authorities over the past few years accused of similar misdemeanours, according to a Democracy Party statement from New York.
The party was broken up at the end of 1998 and its main leaders sentenced to heavy prison terms of up to 13 years.
The group, founded by Wang Youcai, had started an unprecedented campaign against the authorities by demanding official recognition in June 1998 on the day US President Bill Clinton arrived in China for an official visit.
At the beginning of December two other members, Wang Zechen and Wang Wenjiang, were convicted of subversion in northeast China.
According to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong, the jail terms brought to around 30 the number of party activists held in jail in China -- BEIJING (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
