Sir, - In the rush by governments everywhere to eulogise Deng Xiaoping and his remarkable achievements in economic reforms over the past 15 years let us also remember:
. When Deng Xiaoping rose to power in 1978, Wei Jingsheng an electrician, did something that earned him the personal animosity of China's leader. After Deng announced his programme of Four Modernisations to reform the army, agriculture, industry and science, Wei published an essay calling for a Fifth Modernisation democracy. Two days after his article appeared, Wei was arrested and, following a trial on dubious charges of treason, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released in 1993. One year later, he was again arrested and sentenced to another 14 years imprisonment. The trial was a mockery of justice.
. Amnesty International has a list of 2,000 people who are still imprisoned seven years after Tiananmen Square - many of them imprisoned for their peaceful pro-democracy protests.
. Torture is endemic in China. Lian Rihua was arrested on suspicion of stealing chickens - a few hours later, he died under torture.
. Last year in the space of two months, at least 1,000 people were executed in China's "strike hard" campaign against crime. Each year, more people are executed there than in the rest of the world put together.
. Wang Dang, one of the student leaders in Tiananmen, who was previously imprisoned for four years, held in solitary confinement and reportedly blinded in one eye, was sentenced to a further 11 years in prison last October.
. Under Deng Xiaoping savage repression increased in Tibet, with people being shot and beaten merely for displaying pictures of the Dalai Lama.
. Hundreds of thousands of people are in the Laogai, China's forced labour camps, without ever having been charged with a crime.
In the words of one of China's greatest writer Lu Xun: "Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood". - Yours, etc.,
Amnesty International,
Sean MacBride House,
48 Fleet Street,
Dublin 2.