As the final year of Wei's sentence began, publications around the world again began reprinting excerpts from his writings, as many had done annually since his arrest. One March 29, 1993, the first Gleitsman International Activist Award was conferred on Wei and questions began to be raised about whether he would really be allowed out the following year when he had completed his 15-year term. At the beginning of 1993, a senior Ministry of Justice official replied to inquiries about Wei from human rights activist and businessman John Kamm, with the following remarks: 'Frankly, his reform is going too slowly. He persists in his strong anti-government attitude. He is strongly against socialism.... And his attitude is not cooperative.... He likes to rise late and then stay up late watching TV in the adjacent room where the guards are. He always likes to argue with and tries to refute the guards. " The official insisted that unless Wei's behavior changed, he would not be considered for early release.
Just before the anniversary of Wei's arrest in March, the Chinese government released videotape of Wei, showing him apparently in good health and being taken on a trip to a museum and a department store in the city of Tangshan before eating a large meal and visiting the dentist. The tape was clearly an attempt to allay foreign criticisms about Wei's continued imprisonment and conditions. It was not shown within China, however. As it turned out, the tape was also part of an aggressive Chinese government campaign to win Beijing the 2000 Olympic Games. Then a few months later, Wei was taken on a special trip to Beijing. Clearly the authorities hoped that the bustling commerce, new highways and towering hotels of the capital would help persuade the recalcitrant Wei that he had been wrong about China's need for democracy as a "fifth modernization. " But Wei was not convinced that modernization without democratization had been a success. When Kamm asked what impact the visits had had on Wei's views, the official reluctantly admitted, "None whatsoever." In January 1994, when asked again about the transformation of his city, Wei said, "Yes, Beijing is much changed.... at least, its appearance. But, has the basic situation changed? The country is still dominated by totalitarian power. While cadres and officials are getting rich and are benefiting from their traffic in all kinds of goods and influence, the little people still have no voice. I still stick to the same argument: without the introduction of a democratic political system, China will not be able to develop in a stable and sustainable fashion."
Considering his stubbornness and unchanged attitude, Wei's early release appeared unlikely. But then, on September 14, 1993, just nine days before the International Olympic Committee was to vote on Beijing's bid for the Games, the authorities suddenly announced that Wei had been released on probation. Pictures and videotape of Wei signing release papers were released by the authorities, and the tape was even shown briefly on Chinese TV. Wei himself, however, continued to be held in a guest house outside Beijing, unable to return home for another week. Wei's own view on his release was characteristic. Just before the decision on Beijing's Olympic bid went to a vote, Wei Jingsheng told The New York Times that trading political prisoners for the Games was "dirty and abnormal." Wei's release seemed to boomerang on the Chinese authorities, serving only to further focus the world's attention on China's human rights record and its cynical effort to manipulate world opinion. Beijing ended up losing the privilege of hosting the Games to Sydney by a very close margin.
Days after his release, Wei told journalists that he would continue to press for democratization and respect for human rights and would challenge the validity of his conviction through the legal process. But since he was on parole until the completion of his prison term in March 1994 (and would then be subject to three further years of deprivation of political rights), he remained under certain restrictions. He would not only be denied the right to vote and to exercise his right to free expression, but also to form any kind of organization or even do business. He insisted, however, that had no regrets about what he had done.
He said that he fully expected that he would be jailed again, because he felt certain that the authorities were not prepared to tolerate him continuing to exercise his right to free expression. He said that he would not formally accept interviews, but would instead 'have chats" with journalists. When Public Security Bureau officials complained, he claimed that he could not control what they did with his remarks.
Wei also ignored the authorities' injunction against speaking about his time in jail. He was not particularly interested in endless examination of the past, however; he was looking towards the future, worrying about the potential for conflict created by a government which he believed had cut itself off from ordinary people. But in spite of his apparent defiance, he was actually ill with heart and kidney problems. He told Holzman that he was sure he had been given some drug like steroids, possibly in his food, to make him put on weight prior to his release. He continued to lose teeth, making a joke of it when one fell out during a meal. Although his doctor had told him that he could gradually make a full recovery from the heart condition (which left him tired after walking only a short distance) if he would only spend the time to rest, Wei immediately restarted his activism.
Despite the exhortations of friends to take it easy for a while, just weeks after his release he sought out Ding Zilin, a People's University professor whose 17-year-old son had died from bullet wounds when the army began its assault on Beijing on the night of June 3, 1989. Ding has devoted her life to collecting the names of those killed and wounded during the military crackdown. She had also been channeling assistance received from overseas groups to the bereaved families and the injured, as well as helping such people find ways to band together and share their grief in the face of government harassment and discrimination. Somehow, Wei Jingsheng had heard of Ding's work while he was still in prison.
"As in 1979, when he took up Fu Yuehua's case, as soon as he came out of prison, he took up Ding Zilin's case," said Marie Holzman. Although Holzman was in Beijing in January 1994 just to see him, Wei insisted that she spend time with Ding and meet some of the people Ding was helping. When the $50,000 from Alan Gleitsman Foundation's International Activist Award was finally transferred to him, Wei was ready to give it all to support Ding's work and assist the bereaved and wounded. Ding, however, dissuaded him, reminding him that he would need money for his own life. He still found ways to use this money to help with her activities.
Following his release, Wei refused to be limited in his activities by the conspicuous surveillance under which he lived, although he was always mindful of the effects this might have on those with whom he had contact. Living first in his father's house and then later in an apartment belonging to his brother, he met up with many of his old friends and gave freely of his time to dissidents and journalists alike. He set up an office with a computer staffed by a young secretary and interpreter, Tong Yi, a veteran of the 1989 student movement, and went around the city with a wallet stuffed full of bills, telling Holzman that he never knew when he might meet someone who really needed help. At the homes of needy friends, he would quietly slip several hundred yuan into a book on the table or stuff bank notes into their pockets, with discreet generosity.
"To meet with Wei," said Robin Munro, who met him in Beijing after his September release, "was to feel oneself in the presence of an immense moral will and an exceptional, if formally untutored, political intellect. Not only had he somehow survived a fourteen-and-a-half year period of solitary incarceration in some of the worst prisons and labor camps the Chinese authorities have to offer, but upon his release he immediately plunged himself back into tireless activity on behalf of his original goal of helping bring greater human rights and democracy to China. During his six months of freedom, he was constantly on the move around the Chinese capital, networking with scattered pro-democracy cells; encouraging and sometimes cajoling activists into joining their forces to achieve greater things; and, above all, inspiring everyone he met with his unique combination of dauntless resolve, commitment, wit and vision."
By November 1993, Wei's prison letters were appearing around the world in United Daily and his articles and statements calling for more pressure on China to improve human rights were enraging the authorities. "if there wasn't international pressure," Wei told the South China Morning Post, "a lot of political prisoners wouldn't have been set free, including me. Not only would we not have been set free, but according to the standards of the CCP, many of us, including me, would have been executed. He said pressure had improved human rights conditions and contributed to a growing sense of rights among ordinary people. "Many Communist Party cadres at least now have the concept of human rights and of the violation of human rights," he said. "Before they didn't even have this."
The Public Security Bureau warned him repeatedly that as a "criminal" released on parole, he was not permitted to grant interviews to journalists or to publish his own writings, and was even threatened with re-arrest on a number of occasions. He could only write short pieces, he told a family member, since his hand would quickly tire and he would be left exhausted. He did manage to write two opinion pieces for The New York Times, a column for the newly-launched Hong Kong paper Eastem Express, and a number of other brief articles. In his first piece written since his release, a November 18 editorial in The New York Times published on the eve of a meeting between Jiang Zemin and U.S. President Bill Clinton in Seattle, Wei bravely argued that the violations of basic rights in China were severe and would not change without pressure from the international community, including the linking of trade privileges such as Most Favored Nation (MFN) to human rights concessions from the Chinese government. He argued that this position was consistent with his patriotism, even though the Chinese leadership has been fairly successful in tarring those who take such a position as traitors. "Since democracy has never been imposed by one country on another, China's democracy can only be realized by the Chinese people," Wei told Hong Kong's Ming Pao just days after his release from prison. "The Chinese government should contribute to democratization by gradually delegating power to the people."
Wei has remained adamant that without democratization, modernization in China cannot be successful over the long term. He has written several articles addressed to foreign investors, arguing that their long-term interests are congruent with those of democratic activists, in that without an independent rule of law, which functions on a basis of equality, their business interests cannot be guaranteed. Dictatorship created chaos and the absence of democratic procedures for resolving disputes were at the root of the upheavals of the reform period, he argued. "I think the so-called turmoil during these 10 or so years is the result of a suppression of democracy and a suppression of human rights," he told the Hong Kong Standard.
Wei's outspokenness helped to give new impetus to the dissident movement in China otherwise preoccupied with commerce. Although he was not personally involved in any of the various initiatives the dissidents launched because his visibility might have jeopardized their existence, he provided inspiration and counsel for many activists as they increasingly focused their efforts on practical measures to protect human rights, such as legal action against rights abuses and protection of workers' rights.
This new wave of activism coincided with continuing pressure on the Chinese government by the United States. In May 1993, President Clinton declared that he would not renew China's MFN status unless clear progress was made on human rights, and the annual review of MFN for China was fast approaching. During a February 1994 visit to China to discuss human rights issues, John Shattuck, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, met Wei for dinner one evening. Shattuck was visiting China to prepare for the March arrival of Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, and his meeting with Wei outraged the Chinese authorities. It was the first time a Chinese dissident had met with such a high-ranking visiting U.S. diplomat. Even before Shattuck left China, Chinese officials were publicly accusing him of having "broken Chinese law." Six prominent dissidents in Shanghai were hastily rounded up just before Shattuck arrived, to prevent similar meetings there. Wei himself was subsequently detained for 24 hours of "questioning." A few days later, he was forcibly sent out of Beijing on a "voluntary" vacation. As of this writing, he has not regained his freedom.
According to Wei's secretary, Tong Yi, she and Wei were in a car on April 1, driving back to Beijing along the highway from Tianjin, when some seven police cars pulled them over. While Wei was taken away, Tong Yi was allowed to return to Beijing and reported the news of his detention to the foreign press. Then, several days later, she, too, was detained. Although the authorities insist that Wei is not detained, but is under "residential surveillance" (supposedly a form of house arrest), his family has been told only that he is being held in a "hotel" in the suburbs of Beijing, and members have been denied permission to send him clothing, books, or other personal items. On April 7, his sister, Wei Ling, told Ming Pao she was concerned that her brother was being mistreated and that he had become ill as a result. "They told my father it was necessary for them to give my brother a health check-up,' she said. "However, he was in good health before he was arrested."
Foreign Ministry spokesman, Wu Jianmin, told reporters that same day that Wei "has broken the law and must be prosecuted. " He described Wei and other dissidents as "outsiders" who are "cut off from the Chinese reality," reported Agence France Presse. Other officials denied the rearrest of Wei had anything to do with human rights. 'Human rights is not about releasing criminals and other irrelevant issues," said another Foreign Ministry official, according to the South China Moming Post.
Wei's arrest was part of a larger sweep against dissidents. In fact, almost all the principal leaders of the latest wave of human rights and labor activism are now in detention. One by one, they are being sentenced to terms of 'Reeducation Through Labor,' a form of administrative punishment that allows for up to four years in a labor camp without any specific charges being filed or a trial held. Wei himself could face such a sanction or possibly even another prison term. The fact that the Chinese leadership could not bear to permit him his freedom is testament not only to his singular courage but to the fact that Wei has become the symbol of Chinese democracy.