China: The Merit of Obedience

By Guy Garcia.

Even before the trial began, the atmosphere in courtroom No. 01 of the Beijing Intermediate People's Court was foreboding. Black curtains were drawn across the windows, and most seats were filled with men in uniforms. Only two women in the third row, clearly apprehensive, looked out of place.

At 8:30 a.m. the lights suddenly brightened, and Chen Ziming, 38, one of China's leading dissidents, was led in. Stepping into the dock, he looked up at the gallery -- and into the eyes of his mother and his sister. It had been more than a year since they had seen him. For the next five hours, prosecutors harangued Chen as a counter-revolutionary who had financed the 1989 student rebellion in Tiananmen Square. Despite his 40-min. rebuttal, the trial moved inexorably to its verdict: guilty, with a sentence of 13 years in prison.

For the preceding four weeks, Chinese courts had been churning through 29 similar trials with remarkable, if cruel, efficiency. Also sentenced to 13 years was Chen's colleague Wang Juntao, 32, an editor at the Beijing Social and Economic Research Institute, a private think tank headed by Chen. But those among the defendants who showed signs of repentance were treated "leniently" and given lighter sentences. Student leader Wang Dan, the most wanted student after the Tiananmen massacre, drew only four years because he recanted and "exposed others" -- among them Chen Ziming, as prosecutors claimed at last week's trial.

U.S. officials expressed dismay at the sentences for Chen and Wang, which were the longest meted out. Senior officials had been working on the cases since last November. Said State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler: "The speed of the verdicts, the limited opportunity afforded the defendants to prepare a defense and the inability of independent observers to attend the trials inevitably raises questions of justice, fairness and due process."

Chen and his family had little chance against the court. Despite his weakened condition from an attempt to delay the trial with a hunger strike, Chen was forced to stand throughout.

But Chen's family and friends refuse to give up hope. They contend that improving domestic conditions and international pressure may yet help him. Says his sister: "We believe he is not guilty. We believe that history and people in the end will understand him and recognize this fact." In the meantime, the democratic ideals for which Chen sacrificed his freedom seem more remote than ever.

With reporting by Jaime A. FlorCruz and Mia Turner/Beijing