(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC has been informed that Chinese author Wang Lixiong was released without charge on 11 March 1999 following the intervention of a USA State Department spokesperson on the case. Wang Lixiong was reportedly arrested in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on 4 February for “revealing state secrets.” It is believed that Wang had been […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC has been informed that Chinese author Wang Lixiong
was
released without charge on 11 March 1999 following the intervention of a
USA
State Department spokesperson on the case. Wang Lixiong was reportedly
arrested in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on 4 February for “revealing
state secrets.” It is believed that Wang had been collecting material
for a
book on the Xinjiang Province at the time of his arrest, and that his
detention was an attempt to prevent publication of the book. Xinjiang
Province is home to several Muslim minorities, and is a centre for
separatist unrest.
**Updates IFEX alert of 15 March 1999**
Wang Lixiong, aged forty-five, is author of the novel “Yellow Peril”,
published overseas shortly after the 1989 crackdown, which predicted
civil
war and the collapse of the Communist Party in China. The novel is
banned in
China.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the President:
detained without charge for five weeks
of the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Appeals To
His Excellency President Jiang Zemin
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R. China.
Fax: +86 10 6512 5810
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
