Rights activists urge lawmakers to press Beijing about dissidentTaipei Times Monday, July 15, 2002 The Taiwan Association for Human Rights held a press conference Sunday to urge legislators to convey their concern to Beijing over the fate of former pro-democracy student leader Yang Jianli, who was arrested when he tried to enter China on April 27 and has not been heard from again. Lin Feng-jeng, the president of the association, said that Yang was one of the student leaders during the Tiananmen Square student movement in 1989. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4 that year, Yang was exiled to the United States and put on China's list of unwelcome people, along with 48 other pro-democracy activists. After Yang received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1991, he applied tried twice to the Chinese government to be allowed into the country -- in 1996 and 1999 -- but both his applications were denied. Lin said that Yang was arrested at Yunnan Airport on April 27 for using a fake passport and he had not been heard from again. However, the Chinese government has not admitted to having arrested Yang. "As many of our lawmakers are going to visit China during the legislative recess, we sincerely urge them to show their concern over this issue and discuss it with Chinese officials when they meet during their visits," said Lin. "Yang was just trying to go home, but the communists took his basic human rights away without blinking. We must show our concern." According to Lin, the association will invite as many lawmakers as possible to endorse an official statement to China that will urge the government to free Yang as soon as possible. "We will announce the progress of the endorsement process in two to three weeks, probably at another press conference," Lin said.
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