China's intolerance

In sham trials followed by harsh sentences, China has slammed the door on the tiny China Democracy Party. The trial of Xu Wenli, 55, the most prominent of China's dissidents, took just 31/2 hours. For promoting independent labor unions and giving interviews to foreign journalists, he was convicted of ``subverting state power'' and sentenced to 13 years.

Wang Youcai, 32, founder of the now-suppressed China Democracy Party, was sentenced to 11 years. He, too, was convicted of subversion in a brief trial, with no defense lawyer. The trial of democracy campaigner Qin Yongmin, 44, was suspended and will reconvene on Tuesday. A similar conviction and sentence are expected.

Coming just six months after President Clinton's visit to Beijing and barely 10 weeks after China signed the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the new crackdown is disheartening. It erodes the goodwill China built by signing the U. N. covenant, taking initial steps to reform its legal system, and cooperating to contain the Asian monetary crisis.

Adding further insult were two speeches by President Jiang Zemin declaring that China's communist system ``must not be shaken, weakened, or discarded at any time.'' Paradoxically he also insisted, ``The Western mode of political systems must never be copied.'' Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, however, were not ``Eastern boys.'' President Jiang disserves China in trying to saddle it to a political system that doesn't work and spurning one that does work.

The United States, France, Germany, Britain, and the U. N. commissioner for human rights have lodged strong protests. Stronger pressure is warranted -- postponement, for example, of next year's visit by U. S. Commerce Secretary William M. Daley.

Past threats to withdraw most favored nation status achieved only token success, and curtailing trade would rebound adversely now to segments of the American economy. Yet it is in the interest of American companies doing business with China to encourage respect for human rights and the rule of law. An international business code of conduct, similar to that which helped to break apartheid in South Africa, ought to be developed and promoted.

Those in China risking prison to promote democracy and the rule of law must not be abandoned. They deserve the strong support of those who, with the Chinese people, would surely profit.