China frees veteran dissident after nine years in prison

CHINA has released a veteran dissident imprisoned three times after he completed his latest nine-year sentence for subversion, rights groups said on Wednesday. Xu Wanping 53, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in April 2005 in the south-western city of Chongqing for ``inciting subversion of state power,’’ but he received sentence reductions totaling three years while in jail. Following his release on Tuesday, Xu told U.S.-based Radio Free Asia that his political views would not change in spite of his ordeal. Xu suffered digestive, prostate and other health problems during his imprisonment, but he was denied medical treatment despite several requests, U.S.-based Human Rights in China reported. His wife was ``beaten badly by prison authorities’’ during a visit to Xu, and prison authorities denied him permission to attend his mother's funeral, the group said. Xu previously served eight years in prison after he took part in China's 1989 democracy movement. In 1998, he was sentenced to three years at a Re-education through Labour centre for helping to found the Chinese Democracy Party.