China`s hard-line leaders made it clear Thursday that they are running out of patience with foreign dignitaries who try to leave floral tributes to the pro-democracy martyrs in Tiananmen Square or secretly meet dissidents and their relatives.
Two days after expelling three members of Canada`s Parliament, a government spokesman indicated that future Western delegations could suffer a similar fate unless they strictly adhere to their officially sanctioned programs in China.
”After their arrival in China, those three members of Parliament did not respect the arrangements the Chinese side made and abused the hospitality of their hosts by engaging in activities incompatible with their status,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin.
The three Canadians-Geoff Scott, Beryl Gaffney and Svend Robinson-who were in China on a fact-finding mission, had planned what has become almost an obligatory gesture to placate human rights-conscious constituents.
The three had met clandestinely with the wife of jailed dissident Wang Juntao, believed to be the mastermind behind the 1989 Beijing Spring movement, and had hoped to lay a wreath at Tiananmen Square, where pro-democracy activists were massacred by troops June 4, 1989.
Finally they were scheduled to hold a news conference to express their views on China`s human rights record.
But Chinese authorities expelled the three before they held the news conference, driving them to Beijing`s international airport and putting them on a flight to Hong Kong. Canada has made an official protest.
The gesture of ”striking a blow for freedom” was popularized last fall by U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who unfurled a banner in Tiananmen Square to commemorate those who had died in the massacre.
Several networks were there to record her action.
Subsequent European delegations staged similar incidents to publicize their human rights visits.
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union last summer, China`s aged leaders have taken great pains to avoid incidents that could ignite popular unrest.
A new law has even specified that future funerals of leaders must be simple and restricted to close relatives and friends.
In the past, official funerals have often served as excuses for mass expressions of grief that tended to turn into protests against the regime.
A visiting German lawmaker reported Thursday that Chinese officials have ruled out amnesty for the Tiananmen Square democracy activists and rejected international supervision of prison conditions.
Klaus Kubler, vice chairman of the German parliament`s Human Rights Committee, said he spent four days meeting with Chinese officials on human rights issues and won only a promise to continue the dialogue.
