Wei JingSheng
Free Man, yet an Exile
Wei Jingsheng was released from prison and given a medical discharge. He recuperated about a week in Detroit Henry Ford Hospital.
He was treated for heart problems and prescribed heart medication. He was able to meet his sister Wei Shanshan and hi nephew, who live in Germany. He also got fitted for glasses that he needs to read.
Wei stayed in the hospital until Thursday the 20th and then went to New York where he gave a news conference on Friday the 21st.
The conference was held at the New York City public library. Human Rights in China and Amnesty International sponsored the conference. Xiao Qiang of Human Rights in China introduced Wei. (The picture below looks like it was taken outside before the press conference, I am not sure.)
The contents of the press conference can be read here thanks to China News Digest .
Wei's release and news conference were followed fairly extensively by the media. The PBS News Hour did two pieces that can be found on-line and are worth looking at. The first was upon his release and can be found here and the second reported on the New York City press conference here .
Of note is that Wei began to feel ill during the conference and ended it early. Such are the repurcussions of spending so much time in prison under harsh circumstances. I watched an edited video of the conference and at one point Wei looked very pale and pasty. That is when he said he didn't feel good and left. You could actually tell by looking at him that he'd become nauseous.
I was watching the ABC report on Wei, their "Person of the Week" on his first day in New York and felt sorry for the guy when some Human Rights guy, an old geezer wearing hip funky grungy punky clothes, a head scarf and a dangly earing and an Amnesty International T-shirt grabbed Wei around the shoulders and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. Wei, holding a smoke in his hand, grinned and bore it. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to demean the human rights funky style American guy, but if I were Wei maybe I'd have wanted to go back to jail. But it was definitely a gesture of love. That's why I say welcome to freedom, Wei. (I looked for a picture of this kiss at the ABC News web site but they hadn't put it up).
Also, I read a Washington Post article about Wei that mentioned the HRC guys were looking all over for the Chinese smokes Wei likes, Red Tower Mountain (or Red Pagoda). The article made out like they would be hard to find. That is not the case. Just about any Chinese store that sells cigarettes would carry them. But here is one irony. These smokes are of course manufactured by the Chinese Comunist Corporation (i.e. they are a state run business), and the rights to distribute these cigarettes in the US were given to our man Ted , that is Ted Sioeng the publisher of the International Daily News and Clinton campaign contributor and FBI identified agent for the Chinese Communist Government. So Wei is indirectly supporting the CCP's propaganda and influence buying efforts by smoking the Red Pagoda brand. Oh well, c'est la vie .
Perhaps Clinton heard about Wei buying Ted Sioeng's cigarettes and felt compelled to have another supporter (albeit indirect) come to visit. Hence Wei met with president Clinton.
OK, OK, let's give Clinton credit for meeting Wei. Clinton has been trying to make nice with the CCP for his policy of constructive engagement. It was said that one of the quid pro quos for having Jiang visit with all the pomp and fanfare he received as a head of state was that dissidents would be released. Clinton made good on his part and Jiang made good on his part and released Wei.
Clinton immediately made clear that he looked forward to meeting Wei. The Chinese communists didn't like that idea and released a statement the other day that Clinton ought not meet Wei Jingsheng, especially since Wei, according to them, is simply a common criminal on parole. But meet they did, see it and weep Jiang Zemin.
Wei went with Xiao Qiang and Clinton was with National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Wei warned Clinton not to let the Beijing regime deceive him and that they do not abide by the rule of law.
I told him about some of the realities in China . . . and expressed hope that in dealing with the Communists, the United States will not be deceivedSounds like sound advice. President Clinton's spokesman related why he wanted to meet Wei, " The President has heard a great deal about Mr Wei and wanted to have the opportunity to meet him."In dealing with the Communists, do not pay before the goods are delivered
And a long way to go before he goes back home
12-9-97
