Chinese dissidents missing during trip to Vietnam

Tue Jul 23, 4:57 PM ET
By PAUL WILBORN, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - An exiled Chinese dissident and two fellow activists disappeared during a trip to Vietnam in June and haven't been heard from in almost a month, a family member said Tuesday.

Wang Bingzhang was traveling with Zhang Qi, a female U.S. resident, and Yue Wu, a male resident of France. All three are active in pro-democracy movements, Wang's daughter said.

"We really don't know where they are or who got them, so I am really worried at this point," Wang Qingyan said.

She last heard from her father in an e-mail on June 20, but he gave no details of his travels. U.S. State Department officials confirmed Tuesday that Wang was missing.

"The U.S. Consulate General (in Vietnam) is looking into the whereabouts of Wang," said Nancy Beck, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington.

The Chinese and Vietnamese embassies in Washington did not immediately return calls.

The three told friends they were going sightseeing along the Vietnam-Chinese border, Wang Qingyan said. Her father has sneaked into China in the past in attempts to organize dissident movements there.

She said friends and supporters have contacted Chinese and Vietnamese government officials to ask about Wang and his companions but were told the governments knew nothing of their whereabouts. They also called local officials to check for reports of accidents around the border at the time they disappeared, but found nothing.

On June 26, Wang Bingzhang called a friend who was in Cambodia, promising to call him again in three days.

The next day, the friend, Fang Yuan, received two calls from Bingzhang's cellular telephone number, but there was no one on the line when he answered. Wang has not been heard from since, said his daughter, Wang Qingyan, who lives in Los Angeles.

Fang Yuan, reached Tuesday at his home in Australia, said he believes Wang was arrested while attempting to sneak into China.

"He was thinking about breaking into China for a long time and preparing for it," he said through a translator.

Wang was a medical student in China when he started speaking out against the Communist government and was jailed in 1966 and 1967, eventually going into exile in Canada in 1979. He lived in New York during the 1980s, publishing the pro-democracy magazine China Spring and organizing the Chinese Alliance for Democracy.

In 1998, Wang slipped into China without permission, saying he planned to organize a Chinese Democracy and Justice Party to press for free elections and civil liberties. He was caught within a few weeks and deported.

In the past, Wang has urged the U.S. government to pressure the Chinese government to legalize opposition political parties.

"The people need freedom and justice," he has said. "We cannot live in an unjust system forever."