(AFP / Lorien Holland)
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 2:22:42 PDT BEIJING, Aug 12 (AFP) - China's security organs have thrown a heavy guard around Beijing's dwindling band of dissidents, with at least one detained briefly and four reporting round-the-clock surveillance in the run-up to the 15th party congress.Jin Cheng, a 38-year-old former Beijing official, received a 24-hour police watch when he was released after his second detention in four days for criticising central government policy.
"He was released late last night after 15 hours in the police station, but now there is a constant watch on our door," his wife Liu Xiuli said Tuesday.
"They are in plainclothes and they won't speak to us, but they followed him to work and are watching him there," she said in a telephone interview with AFP.
Jin was picked up by three plainclothes police as he left for work Monday after he wrote to parliamentary chief Qiao Shi and demanded that disgraced Beijing party secretary Chen Xitong be tried for corruption.
The fate of Chen, who was placed under house arrest in 1995, is due to be decided before the 15th party congress in the autumn.
Final preparations for the five-yearly congress are already underway, with the top leadership meeting this week in the seaside resort of Beidaihe to put finishing touches to their policies.
"The atmosphere is already very tense ahead of the 15th party congress," said veteran dissident Qin Yongmin, who said Tuesday he had penned a letter to party chief Jiang Zemin calling for a start to political reform at the congress.
"This letter will probably bring me trouble, but I am not afraid...all those working for democracy should state their positions now in order to influence the outcome of the 15th party congress," he added.
Qin said from his home in the central city of Wuhan he had yet to experience any harassment from the police over the letter, but back in Beijing, police were taking no chances.
In addition to tailing Jin, the capital's security organs put a group of plainclothes police on to veteran dissident Ren Wanding, and they have been following him in suburban Tongxian since Monday morning.
"The police will not allow Ren Wanding to go into the city," his wife Zhang Fengying said.
"He can go out and do the shopping and other chores in this district, but that is all and the police follow him all the time," she added.
Even for the wives of dissidents -- who as far as the government is concerned are tarred with the same brush as their husbands -- security has visibly tightened.
"The situation has definitely got worse in the last few days," said Wang Zhihong, wife of dissident Chen Ziming who has been released on medical parole on the condition that he does not speak with journalists or leave the house without police permission.
"I now have three or four people following me in a car whenever I go out, when it used to only be one or two," she said.
The wife of imprisoned activist Liu Xiaobo said she too had been put under police surveillance.
"There are two or three people stationed in the flat below me and they follow me whenever I go out," she said.
"It must be because the 15th party congress is coming up," she added.
Another possible cause for the tightening of security is the arrival of US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.
He is leading a delegation for high-level talks aimed at resolving or at least smoothing over troubled areas in the relationship before the Sino-US summit at the end of October.