Freed Dissident Calls For Defiance

Chinese police on Wednesday released a dissident who was arrested in 1994 before a planned prayer service for victims of the military assault on Tiananmen Square.

Bao Ge emerged unrepentant on the eighth anniversary of the crackdown and vowed to organize an independent political party. His release and call for more dissent was one of the few open acts of defiance on the anniversary.

One other dissident, Shen Liangqing, called on the government to investigate the assault which killed hundreds, perhaps thousands.

“I absolutely have no intention of … changing my position because I know in my heart I am representative of what is in people’s hearts,” Bao said in a telephone interview from Shanghai.