Chinese authorities have detained two priests of the underground Catholic Church in the northern province of Hebei, the Washington Post reports. According to the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, the arrests of Rev. Shi Wende and Rev. Lu Genyou are signs of "irrefutable continuous religious persecution," and call into question China's promises to the Clinton administration of a dialogue on religious freedom and Beijing's resolve to implement the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Chinese government's exile of dissident, Wang Dan, two months prior to President Clinton's summit in Beijing fits into a familiar pattern of China using a handful of prominent dissidents in a "cynical game of political diplomacy," the Los Angeles Times reports. In Hong Kong, exiled labor activist Han Dongfang said, "The policy is clear: Throw out all troublemakers and people speaking the truth, and make the people in the country keep quiet."

The Times observes that the Chinese communists come out ahead by "deftly exploiting the international community's penchant for focusing world attention on one or two dissidents". For example, two other political activists, Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao, who have been repeatedly jailed and released when it was political expedient for the communist government, especially during key Congressional debates in Washington over Most Favored Nation trade status or the visit of high level U.S. officials. Robin Munro of Human Rights Watch/Asia says, "We are seeing a carbon copy of what the Soviets used to do... release detainees who have name recognition in the West before important international meetings or summits. Recently released dissident Wei Jinsheng comments, "When people are being used as pawns in a kind of market, how can you say there has been a bettering of human rights?"

According to official reports, China's prison system still holds 2,000 political prisoners jailed under "counterrevolutionary" charges. In addition, the Times adds, an estimated 200,000 Chinese have been sent to "reeducation through labor" camps across China for political activities. Few of these cases have the name recognition of the handful of prominent dissidents who have recently been exiled by the Beijing regime. "We have hundreds and hundreds of cases on file," says Munro. "Many are very shocking cases... The problem is many of these Chinese names are very difficult for a Western audience to remember, let alone relate to."

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican Secretary for Relations with States, sees no new openings for religious freedom in China, the Catholic World News reports. He responded to reporters that a visit to China by American religious leaders had not produced any concrete progress.

Political dissident, Wang Tingin, a math teacher in the eastern city of Bengbu, was sentenced to two years in a labor camp after meeting an exiled democracy campaigner, Wang Bingzhang, who had slipped back into China, the Associated Press reports.

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