n506  0254  20 Mar 79
 
BC-Prison 03-20
bEditors:
Following is from the London Telegraph Foreign Service.
It is for use only in the United States and Canada.
By NIGEL WADE
Daily Telegraph, London
    PEKING - Life in a secret Chinese prison for senior
political detainees is described in the latest issue of
Exploration, one of the new unofficial newspapers being
published by young dissidents in Peking.
    The author bases his account on the recollections of
people released from Chin Cheng Number One prison, on
the northern outskirts of the capital, which he calls
'
a Chinese Bastille.''
    Most of the prisoners were sent there for refusing to
believe in God,'' the article says, meaning that they
''were opposed to Mao Tse-tung and his policies.''
    Several Peking residents have told foreigners that they
believe Madam Mao and her ''Gang of Four'' politburo
radicals, overthrown after Mao died in 1976, are being
held at Chin Cheng. The article does not mention them.
    It says inmates are kept separate from each other and
called by numbers. ''Interrogation is the only chance
they have to talk to anyone,'' it says. ''One man, after
10 years in the prison, was so excited that he could not utter
a single word when he was called by his name.''
    The prison is directly controlled by the Public Security
Ministry and staffed by special police, the article says.
''The reason few people have heard of this prison is
that hardly anyone was set free from the place before the 1970s.
    People sent there are often cut off entirely from their
families, who do not know whether they are dead or alive.
Many new cellblocks were built because of a sharp increase
in senior political prisoners after the outbreak of the
Cultural Revolution in 1976.
    The article does not estimate the number of prisoners at
Chin Cheng but says they have included former Peking
Mayor Peng Chen and the economic planner Po Yi Po,
who were both recently rehabilitated, and the Russian
wife of Li Li San, an old adversary of Mao.
    Another unofficial newspaper, Peking Spring, has reported
that Wang Kuang Mei, widow of China's purged President
Liu Shao-chi, was confined at Chin Cheng until she
reappeared recently after twelve years in disgrace.
    Exploration paints a picture of torture and privation
among pleasant fruit orchards and courtyards. The prison
entrance is said to be screened from a road by a hoarding
that proclaims a quotation from Mao about proletarian
dictatorship. The prison is near the famous Ming Tombs
tourist spot but approach roads to Chin Cheng are out
of bounds to foreigners.
    Prisoners are permitted one change of clothes a year,
a monthly shower and are allowed to work or exercise only
if they are deemed to have a good attitude. The lucky
ones occupy themselves twisting straw rope or weaving
straw hats, the article adds.
    A few have the privilege of reading Communist works or the
Communist Party paper, the People's Daily.
    A senior deputy commander of the Chinese Army that fought
in Korea was later sent to Chin Cheng and could not move
his legs after being denied exercise for six months.
Prisoners are told to sleep facing the cell door and are
awaken if they turn away, the article says.
    Wages are paid in four grades from 60 yuan (about $40) to
200 yuan (about $140) a month. This coincides with statements
by Chinese officials to foreigners that the ''Gang of
Four'' continues to draw salaries. The article says different
grades of prison food are also available but some prisoners
lose their appetite due to lack of exercise.
    Former inmates are said to have told of frequent beatings
and torture by electric shocks, strong lights and drugs.
Many of the Chin Cheng prisoners were freed while Premier
Chou En-lai was ill in 1975, the article says. But they
were so unused to outside life that most were sent first
to hospitals and then to remote rural areas to recover.
    Exploration is sold openly on the streets for a few cents.
Its latest issue, number three, runs to 13 foolscap
pages stenciled on both sides. The young men who write it
claim a circulation of about 800 but the actual readership
is much bigger because copies are stuck on walls in
Peking and China's third city, Tientsin.
    The report on Chin Cheng Prison is one of the most daring
challenges to official toleration yet to come from the
fledgling ''Democratic Movement'' in Peking.
    Some Chinese leaders are known to favor suppression of
the eight or nine ''free speech'' newspapers fostered by
young workers and students since ''democracy rallies'' last
November.
    But Vice Premier Teng, whose reform minded group now
dominates the party politburo, insists on protecting
constitutionally embodied freedoms, provided they did
not upset political stability or the drive for economic
modernization.
    Free speech and human rights campaigns involved in
unofficial publishing - they deny that they are working
''underground'' - argue that China will never modernize
its economy unless it first modernizes its political
system and lets people speak their minds without fear
of retribution.
rr    (Endit Wade) 03-2p
 
 
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