Chinese Labor Activist Receives 10-Year Prison Term

BEIJING — Broadening a crackdown on dissent, China tried and sentenced a labor activist Sunday to 10 years in prison for telling a U.S. government-funded radio network about farmers’ protests, his wife said.

Zhang Shanguang was the fourth dissident given a lengthy jail term in a week. He was sentenced following a brief closed-door hearing at a court in Huaihua City in southern China’s Hunan province, his wife, Hou Xuezhu, said.

The harsh sentence underscored the Communist Party’s determination to keep a tight grip on power as it grapples with mounting unemployment and economic difficulties.

The trial follows sentences given last week to three of China’s most prominent dissidents: Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin and Wang Youcai. They were charged with endangering state security and sentenced to 13 years, 12 years and 11 years, respectively, for trying to organize the China Democracy Party.

Zhang, however, was not a member of the would-be opposition group, and his sentence suggested a broadening of the government’s efforts to crush dissent.

Zhang had been working on setting up an association to protect the rights of laid-off workers when he was arrested in July, shortly after a visit to China by President Clinton.

At his trial, the court convicted Zhang of providing “intelligence” to people overseas by giving an interview to Radio Free Asia about heavy rural taxes and protests by farmers, his wife said.

Zhang, a former schoolteacher, has tuberculosis and has lost “a lot” of weight in detention, said his wife. But “his spirit is very good,” she said.