China's most prominent pro-democracy campaigner was freed on medical parole Sunday after nearly 18 years in prison. He was flown to the United States and hospitalized immediately.
Wei Jingsheng, first arrested in March 1979 during the crackdown on the Democracy Wall movement, suffers from heart problems, high blood pressure and other ailments made worse during his prison term.After his arrival at Detroit Metropolitan Airport about 10:40 a.m., Wei, 47, was admitted to Henry Ford Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Meg Leonard said.
There were no immediate details on his condition.
Siblings Wei Ling and Wei Xia-otao said in Beijing that their brother had been unable to get adequate treatment in a Chinese prison.
Since last year, Wei had been placed under 24-hour watch in a cell with two glass walls and a light that was never switched off, said his sister, Wei Ling.
"If Wei Jingsheng stayed in jail, he'd be in danger because he's in such bad shape," Liu Qing, a friend of Wei's who came to greet him at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, said through a translator.
Before his arrest, the former soldier and electrician was one of dozens of youths who mimeographed under-ground political journals and posted essays on a public wall in Beijing dubbed the Democracy Wall.
"Everyone now knows that lack of democracy has seriously thwarted Chinese social development," he said in a 1979 essay "What Do We Want: Democracy or New Autocracy?"
The crackdown on the activists shocked Western governments that were growing accustomed to increasing reform after the death of Mao Tse-tung in 1976.
Wei's release came less than two weeks after Chinese President Jiang Zemin returned from a state visit to the United States, which included conversations with President Clinton about human rights. Chinese officials had denied suggestions they would release Wei or other dissidents as a goodwill gesture, describing the prisoners as common criminals.
But Chinese leaders are also sometimes happy to see dissidents go into exile because they frequently sink into obscurity. None, however, has ever been as high-profile as Wei, who has been mentioned for years as a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"We have spent an enormous amount of time, the president has himself, encouraging just this action," White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Clinton looked forward to talking with Wei.
Wei was not informed of his release until late Saturday, his sister and brother said in Beijing. They said he was allowed to spend about five hours with his family Sunday morning before boarding the plane.
Sentenced to 15 years in prison, Wei was released in 1993 in the midst of China's bid to be named host for the 2000 Summer Games. He was arrested again a few months later after he met with a U.S. human rights official.
He was sentenced in 1995 to 14 years in prison on charges of subversion and conspiring to subvert the government.
During his brief freedom in 1993, Wei said he had "absolutely no regrets" about spending so long behind bars, even though harsh prison conditions caused him to lose more than half his teeth and develop a heart ailment.