Good Behavior

THE GESTURES GAVE NEW MEANING TO DENG XIAOping's "kaifang" (opening up) slogan. China's prison police released two student leaders who spearheaded the Tiananmen protests in 1989, freeing former Peking University student Wang Dan, 23, four months before the end of his four-year sentence and paroling graduate student Guo Haifeng, 27, three months early. Why the leniency? Because such gestures might help Beijing attract the Olympics in 2000 and pre-empt moves by the Clinton Administration to link human rights with the granting of most- favored-nation trade status.

"The Chinese know they have to wipe off stains on their hands before they can shake hands with Bill Clinton," says an Asian diplomat. "The paroles will help, but more are needed to do the trick." Perhaps dangling petrodollars might. China has opened up its remote but resource-rich inland areas to foreign oil companies, inviting U.S. oil firms to join the exploration of Xinjiang's Tarim Basin, an area as big as Texas.