WEI SENTENCE UPHELD

A three-judge panel in Beijing upheld a 14-year sentence for Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng. One of the leaders of the 1979 Democracy Wall movement, Wei has spent all but seven months of the past 16 years in prison on charges of sedition. It was Wei's continued pro-democracy activities during a seven month period while on parole in 1993, chief among them a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck, that led to his arrest and trial. "From the government's point of view, Wei did something wrong," notes TIME's Hannah Bloch. "He continued to meet with foreign journalists after he was released from prison, and he clearly violated the terms of his parole." Wei's harsh 14 year sentence is intended to provide a warning both to other dissidents and to the West, notes Bloch, from a government beset by internal turmoil and international disapproval of its human rights record.