Chinese activist ‘overjoyed’ by freedom

? A Chinese democracy activist who was released from jail and flown to the United States is overjoyed by his new freedom but awed by the task of starting his life over at 59, his daughter said Wednesday.

Xu Wenli, freed after four years in a Chinese jail, spent the day catching up with his family and sleeping off jet lag after arriving in New York, said his daughter, Xu Jin.

“It’s overwhelmingly joyful,” the daughter said. “There are just a lot of emotions, and it’s going to be hard. To start your life all over — that’s tough.”

Xu Wenli was jailed after trying to set up the opposition China Democracy Party with other activists. The communist government quickly crushed the party and sent dozens of members to prison, sentencing Xu to 13 years.

He was freed Tuesday after intense lobbying by Clark Randt, the American ambassador to Beijing, and repeated requests for his freedom by U.S. legislators visiting China.

The release came a week after U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner said he had appealed to Chinese officials in human rights talks in Beijing to free Xu.

Xu and his wife, He Xintong, flew from Beijing to Chicago, where they met 30-year-old daughter Xu Jin. The family then flew to New York City.

“It’s nice to be a free man, to be with my wife and daughter,” Xu Wenli said after touching down at New York’s LaGuardia International Airport. “Because of them I am free.”

Xu is the first person convicted of endangering state security — a charge that has been used against leading Chinese dissidents — to be released early from prison, according to American human rights activists.

He was also arrested in 1979 for advocating greater political freedoms during the Democracy Wall movement. He was imprisoned from 1982 to 1993 on charges of counterrevolution.

Xu, who suffers from hepatitis B, was granted medical parole by the Chinese government.