Clinton silent about jailed Web dissident

Former American president Bill Clinton said he failed to raise the case of jailed dissident Shi Tao at an internet conference on Saturday because he didn't know about the issue until yesterday.

"I would've raised it in the speech to the internet people had I known about it," he said after a speech at the US embassy's service to commemorate the September 11 attacks. He was in Beijing as part of a four-day, seven-city visit to China.

Mr Clinton was the keynote speaker at the conference on Saturday hosted by internet powerhouse Yahoo!'s new Chinese partner, Alibaba.com, in Hangzhou .

Activists had sent a letter to Mr Clinton asking him to raise the case of Shi, who was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for "revealing state secrets". Information provided by Yahoo! led to his conviction.

Mr Clinton yesterday said Beijing needed to have greater tolerance for dissent if it was to continue its economic surge while opening up to the world.

"The more China grows and diversifies economically and opens up to the rest of the world, the more there will have to be some room for dissent," he said. "I don't think conflicting information and debate weakens a society. I think it strengthens it."

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that his foundation has pledged to provide free anti-HIV/AIDS drugs to more infected children in China.

In June, the foundation began treating an initial 200 HIV-positive children identified by the government as being in need of the drugs.

Treatment will now be expanded to some 2,000 patients, said Jessica Haberer, a Beijing-based research adviser for the Clinton Foundation.