In an apparent attempt to extinguish a five-month campaign by dissidents to form an opposition political party, police have detained China's leading pro-democracy activist Mr Xu Wenli and four other organisers of the embryo China Democratic Party. At the same time the Beijing government has made clear that it will not tolerate the organisation of a party opposed to the ruling Communist Party.
Mr Li Peng, chairman of the National People's Congress, said if any political grouping "is designed to go for the multi-party system and tries to negate the leadership of the Communist Party, then it will not be allowed to exist". In a revealing interview with the German business daily Handelsblatt, Mr Li said "China promotes democracy and practises rule of law, but our road is not patterned on the western approach that features the separation of powers, multi-party system and privatisation".
These remarks by a man who is closely associated with the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989, will deal a blow to the hopes of human rights advocates of a fundamental change in China's policy on dissent. Activists in several cities and provinces have been making sporadic attempts to register a new party since June in anticipation of a relaxed climate following China's dialogue with the EU and the US over human rights. They were also testing Beijing's intentions in the wake of its signing in October of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right of assembly and free speech.
Mr Li's remarks indicate that even when the covenant is ratified, opposition parties will not be tolerated in China.
Along with dissidents from the central city of Wuhan and the eastern city of Hangzhou, there are now 10 members of the China Democratic Party members in police custody. Mr Xu's wife said yesterday her 55-year-old husband was arrested at his home in Beijing late on Monday. "Xu Wenli could be detained for one month," said Mrs He Xintong. "In the past he was summoned for questioning. This time he was formally detained as a `criminal suspect'. This means they are preparing charges against him."
Mr Xu was chairman of the China Democratic Party's branch in Beijing and Tianjin. The arrest comes as the veteran dissident is involved in an internal feud over control of the fledgling party. A fellow activist for the last 20 years, Mr Ren Wanding, last week accused Mr Xu of staging a "coup d'etat" to win command of the central leadership.
"Xu has been politically profiteering and stepping on others to take command of the party's efforts to set up a branch in Beijing, and raping the democratic party," said Mr Ren, who has been trying to form a Beijing branch himself. Mr Xu, who set up the Beijing branch on November 9th, accused his rival of a history of attacking other dissidents.
China's new generation of dissidents include old-time pro-democracy activists like Mr Xu, who spent 12 years in prison for his part in the 1978-79 Democracy Wall Movement in Beijing, and idealists and eccentrics who are prepared to compromise with the Communist Party.
They have become prominent since the exile to the US of Mr Wei Jingsheng, also a veteran of the Democracy Wall movement which urged political reform, and Mr Wang Dan, a student leader in 1989. Other activists arrested in the current sweep include Mr Qin Yongmin (45), who was picked up in Wuhan on Monday on charges of plotting to overthrow the state. "I'm really angry. His mother hasn't been buried yet," his father said, referring to the death of Mr Qin's 76-year-old mother from heart failure the same day. on Monday. The charge carries a life sentence.
Two other pro-democracy activists were arrested in Wuhan and another in Hangzhou, according to a Hong Kong human rights group. In other activity aimed against political activists recently, veteran dissident Chen Zengxiang was jailed for seven years at a secret trial for "leaking state secrets".