White House admits censoring Chinese dissident

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

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                            South China Morning Post

                               December 19, 1997

Storm over block on Wei TV broadcast; White House red-faced after
censorship admission

By Simon Beck


    The Clinton administration was in the middle of a firestorm yesterday
after officials admitted blocking a global broadcast of a Wei Jingsheng
interview for fear of annoying China.

    After winning praise for receiving Mr Wei in the White House last week,
President Bill Clinton's officials were embarrassed to have to admit
blocking the broadcast on the state-owned global network Worldnet.

    Officials tried in vain to stop the government radio station, Voice of
America (VOA), from broadcasting the interview, but succeeded in blocking
it from Worldnet.

    Both broadcasting arms are run by the official US Information Agency
(USIA).

    The revelations have not only embarrassed the White House, but cast new
light on the conditions with which Beijing asked Washington to comply in
return for Mr Wei's release last month.

    The interference came after the US Ambassador to China, James Sasser,
learned of the planned VOA interview and called the US National Security
Council to express his concern.

    Mr Sasser feared the broadcast would break promises supposed to have
been made to China that the US would not make political capital out of Mr
Wei's release.

    He also warned it could damage US efforts to win other dissidents'
release.

    USIA director Joseph Duffey confirmed Mr Sasser's intervention, and
said: "After I learned it was going to be broadcast, I delayed the Worldnet
telecast and I asked VOA not to telecast it, but they did anyway.

    "With Wei there was an implied commitment that our purpose was not
political exploitation. That's a commitment also in the negotiations, which
frankly now may be in the can."

    White House spokesman Mike McCurry said National Security Adviser Sandy
Berger warned VOA director Evelyn Lieberman.

    "We would not make any effort to violate what is a very important
principle - the editorial independence of VOA," he said.

    "At the same time, it is perfectly appropriate for VOA to understand
what the consequences of some of its broadcasts might be from our
perspective."

    Human Rights Watch Asia's Washington director Mike Jendrzejczyk was
shocked at the "about-face".

    "We can only assume from this that not offending Beijing is more
important to the administration than exerting pressure on China to release
more dissidents and improve its human rights record," he said.