Wei Jingsheng: "Chinese government intensifying violation of human rights" (4' 06")

China's most prominent dissident Wei Jingsheng has accused Western countries of abandoning their democratic principles in an effort to gain access to the Chinese market.

He said he believed Western governments were in danger of sapping the determination of pro-democracy activists in China in their effort to export goods to Beijing.

Mr Wei also said democracy in Hong Kong had been considerably restricted since the territory's handover to China.

He was speaking during his first trip to Britain since he was released from a Chinese jail last November and sent to the United States, effectively into exile.

The 47-year-old activist spent most of the last 20 years in prison for his pro-democracy beliefs.

He said Western countries were quickly becoming too close to what he called China's oppressors and were belittling what he described as the Chinese people's struggle for human rights and democracy.

In prison in 1993

If Western democracies were to prove the falseness of democracy by their actions in China, Mr Wei asked, then why should Chinese people sacrifice themselves for democracy?

Mr Wei said, however, that Western governments did not necessarily represent the will of their own people.

Mr Wei is scheduled to meet a junior Foreign Office Minister. A Foreign Office spokesman said the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, hoped to meet Mr Wei within the coming weeks.

Mr Cook has said he plans to raise British concerns about political prisoners in China during a visit to Beijing later this month.

Mr Wei said human rights conditions were getting worse, and that democracy in Hong Kong had been considerably restricted.

He warned that if Western countries failed to adhere to their democratic principles, the Chinese government would be all the more encouraged to violate human rights.
 

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