From: clarinews@clarinet.com (JEFFREY K. PARKER)
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Message-id: <china-dissidentsU2A6820ae@clarinet.com>
Subject: Shadowy dissident ``party'' seeks Chinese communists' fall
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, political parties,
	politics, civil rights, social issues
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 92 5:19:42 PDT
Location: china
ACategory: international
Slugword: china-dissidents
Priority: regular
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 734; Id: z2274; Sel: xxigf; Adate: 4-6-820aed
Codes: yigfrxx., yipprch., yixhrch.

	BEIJING (UPI) -- A shadowy dissident cell in northwest China says it
has founded a Social Democratic party, seeking ``elimination of one-
party Communist dictatorship'' and establishment of a new society of 
``freedom, justice, humanity and law.''
	A key organizer, who gave United Press International a copy of the
party's charter, said the so-called Social Democratic Party of China was
founded last summer in a provincial capital and claims a diverse
membership of ``several hundred'' in party cells nationwide.
	``We have members in all but five provinces,'' the co-founder told
UPI in a late-night, back-alley interview in Beijing during what he
called an organizing tour of several cities.
	``We have workers, peasants, intellectuals, students and government
officials ranking as high as provincial department chief -- every social
strata except the military,'' he said on condition that his identity and
operational base not be disclosed.
	The organizer offered no evidence corroborating the claimed breadth
of membership in the group, one of many anti-communist underground cells
formed in Beijing and elsewhere since China's nationwide pro-democracy
movement was crushed in June 1989.
	He said the group first met in October 1989 as a collection of
dissidents just out of jail or returned from months on the run.
	Members formalized the party in secret last year, but felt it too
risky to circulate its four-page charter until now, he said.
	The charter's stated goals are to ``organize China's democratic and
patriotic forces to eliminate the one-party communist dictatorship'' and
to ``establish a new society of freedom, justice, humanity and law.''
	The charter describes the ill-fated student-led protests of 1989 as
part of a ``worldwide democratic wave'' that washed away many
authoritarian regimes and that eventually will undermine Communist Party
rule in China.
	``Our democratic credo and scientific spirit are to oppose the
autocratic rule that has existed for millennia in China and has been
pushed to its pinnacle by the Chinese communists,'' it says.
	The charter predicts the already fragmented Communist Party will
split into conservative and liberal camps and that disaffected liberals
will align themselves with the Social Democrats.
	The charter does not advocate the Communist Party's abolition as was
the case in the crumbling Soviet Union.
	``Under a democratic system, all parties have a right to exist,
including the Communist Party,'' the organizer said.
	He stressed without hesitation that party members dream of one day
ruling as a democratically elected government, and said he was
optimistic multi-party democracy eventually would prevail.
	``We have formed a political party, so of course we intend to come to
political power,'' he said. ``In the broad sense, it is certain that
this historic movement will succeed. There may be setbacks, but in the
end the changes will come.''
	Challenging Communist rule is considered ``counterrevolution,'' a
grave offenses under Chinese law that is punishable by a long prison
term or death.
	The organizer acknowledged the danger of his group's mission, but
said links with informants in regional police and other government
agencies already provide a degree of protection.
	``The more organized we get, the safer we will be,'' he said.
	The organizer said the Social Democratic Party was not modeled on any
similarly named parties in the West and has no financial, political or
organizational links to the Federation for Chinese Democracy or other
exiled activist groups.
	``We wouldn't mind having contact with overseas groups but there is
no need right now,'' he said. ``Those groups are doing what they can
abroad and we are doing what we can here.''
	He said he was distributing the charter to Western journalists in the
hope his party's ideas would penetrate China though Voice of America and
British Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts.
	``We are doing a bit of export for the purpose of re-import,'' the
organizer said with a grin.
	Disaffected Chinese inspired by the group's ideals are free to
establish independent party cells, he said.
	Members try to coordinate the work of regional cells through secret
meetings, long-distance telephone calls and letters hand- carried by
trusted couriers, he said.
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