WANG DAN FREED

April 20, 1998
		Wang Dan, a leading figure in the 1989 pro-democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square, arrived in the United States yesterday following his release from a Chinese prison. Following a background report, Jim Lehrer and guests discuss the significance of Mr. Wang's release.

March 9, 1999: A U.S. scientist is fired for allegeldly passing nuclear information to China Feb. 26, 1999: The State Department criticizes China's crackdown on dissidents. Dec. 30, 1998: China cracksdown on political opponents. July 7, 1998: The Tibetan question. June 29, 1998: President Clinton challenges China on human rights issues. June 24, 1998: Three dissidents discuss Clinton's visit to China. June 15, 1998: The Chinese ambassador on Clinton's trip April 27, 1998: An interview Chinese dissident Wang Dan Dec. 10, 1997: An interview with Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Asia   Embassy of the Peoples Republic of China Human Rights Watch State Department human rights report on China	SPENCER MICHELS: Wang Dan was let out of prison Sunday and put on a plane to the United States for medical treatment. Twenty-nine-year old Wang is one of China's strongest advocates for democracy.
	A leader of the student movement.
	He first came to prominence in 1989 as a leader of the student movement, which culminated in the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. After a month, the protest was crushed by the Chinese army and hundreds were killed. Wang--then a thin history student at Beijing University--was arrested and jailed for nearly four years for exhorting others to fight for freedom and human rights. Wang continued to criticize the Chinese government--and some of his writings were published abroad. In 1989, he wrote: "We make no effort to conceal the aim of the current student movement, which is to exert pressure on the government to promote the progress of democracy. People's yearning for democracy, science, human rights, freedom, reason, and equality, which lack a fundamental basis in China, have once again been aroused. Wang was released from prison in 1993, as China was applying to host the year 2000 Olympic games. In 1995, after his release, he wrote: "A society still needs idealists--people who are willing to sacrifice themselves to uphold the basic ideals of freedom and democracy." In 1996, he was sentenced to prison again, this time for eleven years, for subversion. He was sent to a facility in Liaoning Province--more than ten hours from his home in Beijing. Wang is the second dissident released in recent months. Wei Jingsheng was freed in November and exiled to the United States just weeks after Chinese President Jiang Zemin met with President Clinton in Washington. At those meetings, Mr. Clinton reportedly asked for the release of both Wang and Wei. The two presidents are scheduled to meet again in June, when Mr. Clinton travels to China. He will be the first U.S. president to go to China since the Tiananmen Square massacres. The White House claimed credit for helping to orchestrate yesterday's release of Wang. SAMUEL BERGER: It is part of a long-term effort, as you know, that we've been engaged in to try to make progress on human rights in China, which has produced some concrete results. SPENCER MICHELS: In a statement issued from the hospital yesterday, Wang thanked the U.S. Government and said: "I greatly hope that those democracy activists who continue to be imprisoned in China can soon obtain their freedom." Wang had reportedly suffered from headaches, dizziness, and prostate problems while in prison. But doctors at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital today ruled out major illnesses. DR. ROBERT HYZY, Henry Food Hospital: He had an entirely normal neurologic exam, and, indeed, his MRI was negative, so any issue of a brain tumor was quickly laid to rest. And so other aspects of his work-up, routine laboratories, chest X-ray, were all acceptable, and so I think he's in pretty good shape, and we're happy about that. SPENCER MICHELS: Wang is expected to leave the hospital tomorrow and will go to New York for a press conference on Thursday.