Xu

Mei Xu took several detours to become a founder of a multimillion-dollar candle and home decor company in Maryland. Xu grew up in China and was swept up with other college students in the government's push to "re-educate" them after the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989, the year she graduated with a degree in American studies. She was sent to work in a metal and mineral warehouse despite having been trained to become a diplomat since age 12. She quit after a month. She then came to the U.S. to study journalism at the University of Maryland.

Mei Xu took several detours to become a founder of a multimillion-dollar candle and home decor company in Maryland. Xu grew up in China and was swept up with other college students in the government's push to "re-educate" them after the Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989, the year she graduated with a degree in American studies. She was sent to work in a metal and mineral warehouse despite having been trained to become a diplomat since age 12. She quit after a month. She then came to the U.S. to study journalism at the University of Maryland.

BEIJING - China released its most prominent pro-democracy prisoner yesterday, sending him to exile and medical treatment in the United States. The release of Xu Wenli, 59, who spent more than 16 of the past 21 years in prison for his irrepressible advocacy of civil rights, was seen as a signal of Beijing's strong desire for good relations with the United States, coming one week after a visiting American diplomat made pleas on his behalf. American officials and human rights groups abroad have repeatedly sought Xu's release since late 1998, when Xu received a 13-year sentence on subversion charges after he helped to organize an independent political party, the China Democracy Party.

Dinosaur hunters working in Inner Mongolia announced yesterday that they have found the fossil of an enormous birdlike dinosaur 300 times heavier than its closest relatives. Dubbed Gigantoraptor erlianensis, the species lived 75 million to 95 million years ago, late in the dinosaur era. The relatively complete fossil specimen was about 25 feet long, 11.5 feet high at the shoulder and would have weighed more than 3,000 pounds, yet exhibited birdlike characteristics that included a beak, hollow bones and, very likely, ornamental feathers.

LAST WEEK, a room at the east Columbia library was filled with little girls in traditional Chinese clothing, dancing traditional Chinese dances and singing traditional Chinese songs. The children, ages 4 to 6, are participants in a Chinese dance class taught by Owen Brown resident Xiao Fang Xu. Many of the children in Xu's weekly dance class have been adopted from China. The class is one way their American parents help them connect with their Chinese heritage. "They would get the dancing and songs in school if they were still in China," said Long Reach parent Bob McMahon,whose daughter, Elizabeth, 6, was adopted from China four years ago. "This class gives her a chance to interact with other Chinese children her age."

BEIJING -- China paroled a veteran political dissident today in a move that follows reports that President Clinton will extend China's favorable U.S. trade status for one more year without special conditions.Xu Wenli, 49, who has served 12 years in prison for taking part in a democracy movement here in 1978-81, was released three years early today, the Justice Ministry announced.John Kamm, a U.S. human rights activist in Hong Kong, said that he earlier received a fax from "a senior government source" promising that Mr. Xu would be released this morning.

BEIJING -- Adoption by Washington of a proposal to enhance military ties with Taiwan would have a "disastrous" effect on U.S. relations with China, a leading government adviser warned yesterday. "This would be an openly hostile act by the United States toward China," the adviser, Xu Shiquan, said of the proposed law in an interview. "Sino-American relations would plunge again to the bottom, and American interests would be seriously damaged." Xu is president of the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the leading government-run research group on Taiwanese affairs.

BEIJING - Two leaders of the outlawed China Democracy Party were given long prison sentences this week on subversion charges, a human rights monitor reported yesterday. Hu Mingjun and Wang Sen, both from Chengdu in Sichuan province, were sentenced Thursday to 11 years and 10 years, respectively, by a court in Sichuan, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Hu is 30 years old, said the center. It did not give Wang's age. The men were arrested in spring 2001, months after they had contacted protesting workers at a state-owned steel mill at Dazhou, in Sichuan, and issued a statement of support for them in the name of the democracy party.

BEIJING -- The neatly written note on the door to Xu Wenli's apartment politely begged journalists' understanding that he was simply too tired to talk anymore about his 12- year ordeal in the Chinese gulag. But inside, the short, wiry political dissident seemed almost peppy as he happily prepared to go out to dinner with his family.Jokes perhaps were the best antidote for the shock of suddenly being paroled after more than a decade of living as China's "Special Prisoner No. 1," his official prison label.

BEIJING -- Sending a chilling message to its opponents, China sentenced two of the nation's most prominent dissidents to a combined 24 years in prison yesterday for trying to establish an independent political party.In a bold effort, organizers Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai had sought official recognition for their China Democracy Party in this one-party state. Their group became the first to openly challenge the Communists since they took control of the country in 1949.Yesterday, Xu received 13 years and Wang 11 on charges of subversion.

Meng Meng Xu's art talent began to first emerge when she was 8. "She would borrow books from the library and draw pictures," said Meng Meng's mother, Gui Fang Yan. "She would draw her father." Yan and her husband, Xue Hong Xu, encouraged her interest by finding a private art teacher when Meng Meng was 12. Four years later, those art lessons seemed to have paid off. Meng Meng, 16, is the winner of the Columbia Festival of the Arts' second artwork contest. "I didn't believe it," said Meng Meng, a sophomore at Centennial High School in Ellicott City.

BEIJING - China released its most prominent pro-democracy prisoner yesterday, sending him to exile and medical treatment in the United States. The release of Xu Wenli, 59, who spent more than 16 of the past 21 years in prison for his irrepressible advocacy of civil rights, was seen as a signal of Beijing's strong desire for good relations with the United States, coming one week after a visiting American diplomat made pleas on his behalf. American officials and human rights groups abroad have repeatedly sought Xu's release since late 1998, when Xu received a 13-year sentence on subversion charges after he helped to organize an independent political party, the China Democracy Party.

BEIJING - Two leaders of the outlawed China Democracy Party were given long prison sentences this week on subversion charges, a human rights monitor reported yesterday. Hu Mingjun and Wang Sen, both from Chengdu in Sichuan province, were sentenced Thursday to 11 years and 10 years, respectively, by a court in Sichuan, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Hu is 30 years old, said the center. It did not give Wang's age. The men were arrested in spring 2001, months after they had contacted protesting workers at a state-owned steel mill at Dazhou, in Sichuan, and issued a statement of support for them in the name of the democracy party.

LAST WEEK, a room at the east Columbia library was filled with little girls in traditional Chinese clothing, dancing traditional Chinese dances and singing traditional Chinese songs. The children, ages 4 to 6, are participants in a Chinese dance class taught by Owen Brown resident Xiao Fang Xu. Many of the children in Xu's weekly dance class have been adopted from China. The class is one way their American parents help them connect with their Chinese heritage. "They would get the dancing and songs in school if they were still in China," said Long Reach parent Bob McMahon,whose daughter, Elizabeth, 6, was adopted from China four years ago. "This class gives her a chance to interact with other Chinese children her age."

BEIJING -- Adoption by Washington of a proposal to enhance military ties with Taiwan would have a "disastrous" effect on U.S. relations with China, a leading government adviser warned yesterday. "This would be an openly hostile act by the United States toward China," the adviser, Xu Shiquan, said of the proposed law in an interview. "Sino-American relations would plunge again to the bottom, and American interests would be seriously damaged." Xu is president of the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the leading government-run research group on Taiwanese affairs.

WASHINGTON -- Two of the three Chinese journalists killed in the accidental NATO bombing of China's Embassy in Belgrade last month were intelligence officers, U.S. officials said yesterday.The May 7 attack apparently destroyed the embassy's intelligence compound, according to a senior administration official.He said this could explain why, despite detailed private assurances by President Clinton and U.S. diplomats, China continues to insist that the bombing could not have been accidental.

Dinosaur hunters working in Inner Mongolia announced yesterday that they have found the fossil of an enormous birdlike dinosaur 300 times heavier than its closest relatives. Dubbed Gigantoraptor erlianensis, the species lived 75 million to 95 million years ago, late in the dinosaur era. The relatively complete fossil specimen was about 25 feet long, 11.5 feet high at the shoulder and would have weighed more than 3,000 pounds, yet exhibited birdlike characteristics that included a beak, hollow bones and, very likely, ornamental feathers.

WASHINGTON -- Two of the three Chinese journalists killed in the accidental NATO bombing of China's Embassy in Belgrade last month were intelligence officers, U.S. officials said yesterday.The May 7 attack apparently destroyed the embassy's intelligence compound, according to a senior administration official.He said this could explain why, despite detailed private assurances by President Clinton and U.S. diplomats, China continues to insist that the bombing could not have been accidental.

BEIJING -- Sending a chilling message to its opponents, China sentenced two of the nation's most prominent dissidents to a combined 24 years in prison yesterday for trying to establish an independent political party.In a bold effort, organizers Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai had sought official recognition for their China Democracy Party in this one-party state. Their group became the first to openly challenge the Communists since they took control of the country in 1949.Yesterday, Xu received 13 years and Wang 11 on charges of subversion.

BEIJING -- The neatly written note on the door to Xu Wenli's apartment politely begged journalists' understanding that he was simply too tired to talk anymore about his 12- year ordeal in the Chinese gulag. But inside, the short, wiry political dissident seemed almost peppy as he happily prepared to go out to dinner with his family.Jokes perhaps were the best antidote for the shock of suddenly being paroled after more than a decade of living as China's "Special Prisoner No. 1," his official prison label.