U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson begins a 10 day visit to Beijing and Tibet, reports the Washington Post, with the expressed intention to press the Chinese government to sign the U.N. Convention on Civil and Political Rights. A letter to Robinson signed by 116 dissidents urged that the Chinese government dismantle the "reeducation through labor" system, which authorizes three year jail terms without trial, which is frequently used to detain and silence government critics.

In Beijing, a group of Chinese legal experts chosen by the government from the elite Chinese Academy of Social Sciences met with Mary Robinson for a "blunt" discussion of the state of freedom and human rights in China, the Washington Post reports. One scholar spoke out against the large number of executions and another criticized the vast labor camp system. In 1997, 3,000 prisoners were sentenced to death by Chinese courts.

At the Beijing Hilton hotel, police dragged away the wife of jailed Chinese human rights advocate Liu Nianchun, who was waiting to seek Mary Robinson's help to free her husband, the Associated Press reports. The wife, Chu Hailan screamed, "I want to see Mary," as she dragged through the hotel lobby. Liu, suffering from numerous health problems, is one of China's most prominent dissidents. He has been in detention for more than three years without trial.

Beijing is giving conflicting signals whether the independent Chinese Democracy Party will be permitted to register and, in effect, end the ban on the formation of political parties by ordinary Chinese, the South China Morning Post reports. CDP organizers Liu Lianjun and Xie Wanjun met with Chinese officials in Shandong and Hubei provinces to seek permission to register their party. Reportedly local units of the Civil Affairs Ministry gave four criteria for registration: A party must have 50,000 Yuan; provide its address; a list of at least 50 members; and a brief description of its chairman, vice-chairman and secretary. However, the State Council issued a statement saying the Shandong Government had not received and was not processing "an application of the so-called Chinese Democracy Party." It also accused the CDP of "misleading public opinion," and had "fabricated rumors on several occasions."

In Tibet, Mary Robinson asked Beijing-appointed Communist Party officials about the whereabouts of a detained child, considered the world's youngest political prisoner, the AP reports. Nine-year old Gedhun Choekyi Nima has not been seen in public since mid-1995, when the Dalai Lama proclaimed him the heir to the title of the Panchen Lama, the highest ranking Buddhist cleric in Tibet. After rejecting the Dalai Lama's announcement, the Chinese government forced Tibet's clergy to name another child as the Panchen Lama. Robinson also intended to query Communist officials in Lhasa on a report that Tibetan political prisoners were interrogated and beaten after a visit by a U.N. team who visited Tibet last year to investigate arbitrary detention.

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