Taiwan Dissidents

A military court in Taiwan yesterday sentenced Lu Hsiu-lien, a recent graduate of the Law School and a prominent political activist in Taiwan, to a 12-year prison term for sedition.

The Court also sentenced seven codefendants to terms ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment for what it ruled was support of the movement for Taiwanese independence and for plotting to overthrow the Chinese govern nationalist government.

Taiwan

All eight defendants worked for Formosa Magazine, a publication banned last year opposed to the ruling government.

Lu, a leader of the feminist movement in Taiwan, left the Law School for her homeland in 1978, and became an editor of Formosa in August 1979.

Government police arrested her shortly after an anti-government rally organized by the magazine turned into a riot in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung last December 10.

Edwin O. Reischauer, University Professor, said yesterday there was no reason to assume the recent convictions represented a "get tough" policy toward political opposition in Taiwan.

He predicted "a slow evolution of bipartisan politics"--which the convicted dissidents advocated---adding that "the process of change could be expected to go on for a matter of decades, moving only very slowly."