China Puts Dissident on Trial

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese writer and advocate of democratic change was prosecuted for subversion at a trial that his family was not allowed to attend, his wife said Wednesday.

Qi Yanchen's trial was first scheduled for May 23, the eve of a contentious debate in the U.S. Congress on granting China permanent trading rights. Court officials said it was postponed for a week because one of the judges was sick.

Qi's trial Tuesday at the Cang County People's Court in northern Hebei province ended after 41/2 hours without a verdict, said his wife, Mi Hongwu.

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The court did not inform Qi's family that the trial was taking place and family members were barred from attending, she said. She learned about the trial from Qi's lawyer. Mi has not seen her husband since he was taken into custody 81/2 months ago.

A veteran activist, Qi was a founding member of the China Development Union, an intellectuals' forum that claimed to have 11,000 members across China before police shut it down in late 1998.

Qi was charged with subverting state power for a series of articles written for Kaifang, a Hong Kong monthly on Chinese politics, and VIP Reference, a U.S.-based dissident magazine circulated by e-mail, his wife said. Qi used the pen name Ji Li. VIP Reference said China's security agents somehow traced Qi through the pen name.

The articles touched upon some of the most sensitive topics in Chinese politics: Beijing's suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement and of a would-be opposition group, the China Democracy Party.

Chinese leaders regard both organizations as threats to Communist Party rule.

Inciting subversion, the crime Qi was charged with, carries a fixed prison term of 5 years or less, but that limit can be exceeded for ``leading elements.''