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- WORLD, Page 49World NotesCHINAA Breath of Fresh Air
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- China's leaders are violently allergic to criticism. But last
- week they allowed a prominent American to air some irritating
- thoughts before a domestic public audience for the first time
- since the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Visiting former President
- Jimmy Carter told some 400 people at Beijing's Foreign Affairs
- College that "worldwide concerns" for imprisoned Chinese
- protesters are legitimate, pressing and curable -- by a grant
- of "amnesty to all nonviolent dissidents."
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- Carter's message, which he repeated to Premier Li Peng and
- Communist General Secretary Jiang Zemin, produced no visible
- results, though the former President did receive assurances that
- Chinese students in the U.S. who obtain a permit to return home
- will not be harassed or arrested once back in China. Chinese
- analysts believe the regime may have let Carter speak to help
- persuade Washington to continue most-favored-nation trade
- relations.
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