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Excerpts from Chinese dissident, Wang Dan's, news conference and a discussion with two of his compatriots from Tiananmen Square.

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PHIL PONCE: For a top leader of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement it was the first meeting with the media since his release from Chinese prison on Sunday.

WANG DAN, Chinese Dissident: (speaking through interpreter) My feelings right now are mixed. On the one hand I'm naturally delighted to breathe free again, especially since I can now live and study in a free country like America. But, on the other hand, I feel disturbed at having been forced to leave my own country, to live separately from my family, relatives, and friends, and all of my compatriots, without knowing when, if ever, I will be allowed to say them again. I dream of a day in China when the ideas of freedom, democracy, human sympathy, tolerance, and equality have pervaded people's hearts and minds and have radically transformed the patterns of social life. When that day comes, we can cease our tears, forget every painful memory, and watch China advance toward a magnificent and brilliant new day. If we all work hard for that day to come, it will, I believe, come. Thank you.

PHIL PONCE: Wang Dan then took questions from a primarily Chinese-speaking press corps.

REPORTER: (speaking through interpreter) In the past you said that you're not willing to leave China, but now you have. Why is that, and do you fear that your leaving China is going to have any influence on your relatives inside China?

WANG DAN: (speaking through interpreter) You may know that the first time I was released from prison in 1993 I did have the chance to go abroad and didn't take it because I felt very strongly then, and always have, that I didn't want to leave China. The experience that I had between 1993 and 1995 changed my mind for about three reasons: First is that during the time that I was released I found that I was followed so closely by plain clothes police everywhere that it was plain that were I try to do something useful inside China, it would be virtually impossible to do it. So from a practical point of view it didn't make too much sense. The other second reason is what I said in my statement today really was not just polite talk. I sincerely do feel that my education should come first, that in order to make a real contribution to China I need to raise my own level of education and understanding of things, and, therefore, I'm 29 years old to be able to go to university is a primary consideration. A third reason has to do with my parents, who are now both over 60 years old and have watched and worried and wrung their hands, as I've been in prison all of these years, and, of course, have hoped that I could be released, so in consideration of their physical and spiritual and also economic good I felt I should take a deal to come out of prison. I would add, though, that the Chinese government insisted that if I took this medical parole reason for leaving prison, it had to be to go overseas. Had they given me the option of staying in China for medical parole, I certainly would have chosen that alternative.

REPORTER: (speaking through interpreter) This question brings us back to the Tiananmen movement in 1989 in your prison memoirs that you've published you mentioned some reminiscing thinking back over what happened, do you have any feelings or regrets about what happened?

WANG DAN: (speaking through interpreter) First, I want to say that I want to separate my responsibility from my attribution of anybody else's responsibility. Speaking only for myself, I have actually said in the past that I think I was seven parts wrong and three parts right. Any movement that results in the deaths of people, even if it's just one person raises the question of the moral responsibility of the participants, and when so many people died, I have a feeling of moral guilt in this matter, and I imagine that I will have it for all of my life. At the time we were young and naive in certain ways and, therefore, made mistakes that led to this tragedy. Of course, none of this is to say that the main responsibility was ours. Everyone knows the main responsibility was with the government who actually did the killing. Yet, we could have handled the situation differently, and that we didn't will always live with me as a matter for regret. I feel part of me always will be bound to working for democracy and human rights in China. I can't get away from that. And the reason I can't get away from it is because I feel I need to make up for it, to atone for what happened in 1989.

PHIL PONCE: We get more now from two of Wang Dan's compatriots at Tiananmen Square. Li Lu was a physics student in 1989 and one of the main leaders of the pro-democracy movement. He escaped from China that year and came to America, where he now owns an investment company. Chai Ling was a psychology student in 1989 and also one of the democracy movement's main leader. After the crackdown, she escaped from China and came to America in 1990. She's now finishing her MBA at Harvard. Welcome both. Mr. Li, after Tiananmen Square, the government made Mr. Wang their most sought after dissident. What was his role at Tiananmen Square?

LI LU, Former Student Leader: Well, he is really the cohesive force among all the people, not only the students but those intellectuals and peoples and is widely respected, widely admired, and is a wonderful, wonderful friend, and a great man, a very, very courageous man. I'm so heartened for his release. I'm so happy for him, for his freedom.

PHIL PONCE: So, in light of his skills--his organization skills and other speaking skills and that sort of thing there's a reason why the government wanted him?

LI LU: Oh, absolutely. He's bright, he's articulate, and he's a leading symbol of the democracy movement. He continued to be a leading symbol for the future. Securing his freedom is really to preserve a very important hope for the future of China.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Chai, what was Mr. Wang like in 1989?

CHAI LING, Former Student Leader: He was always very calm, very articulate, very eloquent. The reason why he got put No. 1 on most wanted lists because the government wanted to create a conspiracy theory where he's linked between all the people behind the students and intellectuals and the connection from overseas.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Li, you had dinner with Mr. Wang recently.

LI LU: That's right.

PHIL PONCE: Has he changed?

LI LU: No, he hasn't. Actually, if at all change, he become more mature, more determined, and in a sense I think he's a representative of all the people who were in Tiananmen at the time. In a sense there is a whole generation coming of age on Tiananmen Square. Now, nine years have passed. The whole generation of Tiananmen have suffered but not have given up and, instead, I think all of us have stand up again and have achieved enormous success and become more mature, more determined, and I predict in the next 10 years that Tiananmen generation is going to come to shape the future of China, and Wang Dan will be right there.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Chai, you've been away from China now for nine years. Do you have any insights or any advice for Mr. Wang about what it is to be a dissident in exile?

CHAI LING: It's not easy, that's for sure. You've got to overcome the challenge of being--living in a strange country, learning a new language, and to survive and to succeed. I believe after what Wang Dan go through, what he go through in jail, he'll be a superstar in doing that. In those many years every day I went to work and school and go to parties--I always think about him--how would he feel being in small cell in jails. I'm so happy for his release and we'll do everything we can to help him adjust to new world.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Li, another dissident, exiled dissident, was quoted in the LA Times as saying, "I don't know whether I should congratulate him on his release, or express my regret on his beginning of exile, which is a torture on the mental level." Is there some aspect of torture in being exiled?

LI LU: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. You're cut off from your home, your root, your culture, your family, your language, and most importantly, you're cut off from your cause, in a sense, you know. All of us, we share with Wang Dan, was that sense we have to devote all we have to help the cause, but at the same time we're so far away, there's so little that we can do. Of course, we can still have a lot to do, but that sense of loneliness, that sense of separation is something very difficult to deal with. But I do believe--I think Wang Dan has the perfect chance to come to this country to study, to experience a democracy and a market economy and learn how a sophisticated modern society should function. I think all of those will prepare him well in the future, and I think he does have a great future.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Chai, how effective can a dissident in exile be to continue to work on behalf of the cause, as Mr. Li puts it?

CHAI LING: Dissidents chose to be very effective in helping promoting democracy in China, continue the cause we all share and started with in 1989 but had to say the fundamental change had to come from inside China itself, from the current privatization. But, you know, once you privatize a company, you had to define the property rights and to have the rule of law to ensure the stability and the privacy of people's ownership of that. As a dissident we can be really effective in raising international awareness and pressure, and urge President Clinton to continue his voice on behalf of American people to speak on behalf of democracy, freedom, rule of law. I believe that will serve well for the long-term interest for both China and America.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Chai, though, on a practical level what kinds of specific things can you do to influence what's happening in China? Can you communicate with people there? How do you do it?

CHAI LING: You can communicate with people, and for example, when Wang Dan was in jail, we organized supporting effort and to support his family and other people who are dissidents and to the victim's family today, and also for example, when President Clinton going to China, we can urge him to request release for all the rest of dissidents inside China, and we can continue to develop ourselves, learning the skills and knowledge how to build successful society in terms of democracy, economic development, and in the future when we go back, when the time comes for our generation, the Tiananmen generation to shape the future of China, we can be much more effective.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Li, looking back on the events of 1989, what impact do you think of those events have had on how China has developed in the past nine years?

LI LU: Oh, I think 1989 is a turning point in modern China's history. You see, what happened in the past nine years happened as a direct result of 1989. In a sense the government killed the messenger but was forced to keep the message on all levels from economic liberalization to social changes, and so and also to the limited opening of a political market say in the forms of county level election. All of those are demanded by the people and the students in 1989. In a sense, all the accomplishments come at the sacrifice of the students and the demonstrators in 1989. So in that regard, you know, I think the country and the world owe a great deal of debt to those people who give up their life to the great cause. And on the other hand, I feel great relief seeing China still continuing to push or to be pushed into the right direction. And I predict in the next 10 years when this young generation of the Tiananmen come to really in their 40's, I think they will come to dominate every aspect of Chinese life, and the most important point is I think in the past nine years we have all grown into more mature--but we have not moved away from our ideals in 1989 and will continue to do so. I think that's the kind of a China you're going to see in another 10 years.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Chai, one of the things Mr. Wang talked about was some of the regrets that he had over some of the mistakes he may have made. Was there something that those of you who were in charge of Tiananmen Square in 1989 could have done differently or should have done differently?

CHAI LING: I believe what Wang Dan is talking--what he's saying that he's a personal feeling, versus whatever is going large--he's referring to a feeling probably not recognized today--that's caused guilt. We all shared that--where he led and organized a participant movement--so dramatic. And we lost our friends, our colleagues, and, you know, at same time we survive and we bear a great deal sense of guilt, a moral obligation to the people who longer with us today. You know, it took me a while, about six years, to really realize that's what was going on when I read the books by the victims from Holocaust--you know--that's the issue they're suffering. But I think what--the most important things we should not lose focus--focus is that government, regime, still dominate China--they are the ones conducting killing. They should be ultimately responsible because the same power they had to kill the people in Tiananmen Square, they still have it--they have every single power to rescue people, to detain them, to release them at their will, and that, you know, or to kill them, that's what need to be stopped, that's what need to be changed, and we will change, our whole generation will work our best to change it, and I believe a free and democratic and safe China will be in our near future.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Li, do you plan on returning to China at some point?

LI LU: Oh, absolutely.

PHIL PONCE: Under what circumstances?

LI LU: Well, I think Wang Dan put it right. I think in order to really make an important contribution we have to be able to move in China freely. I think that's the minimum bottom line. As a matter of fact, I want to put that as a request to the Chinese government to allow us to go back. We are Chinese citizens, and we will continue and always be a Chinese citizen, and our intention is a peaceful intention. We want to help the country. We want to help the people, and we have to learn something we thought is useful, and we're not really into overthrowing government. We're rational people. So let us go back to China and let us live there freely, and we'll make a better China.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Li, Ms. Chai, thank you both very much.

CHAI LING: Thank you.

LI LU: Thank you.

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