BEIJING AP In an apparent attempt to crush a budding opposition party Chinese police have detained two of China's most prominent dissidents and three other democracy campaigners a human rights group and relatives of those taken into custody said Tuesday. Police in two cities descended on the homes of Xu Wenli Qin Yongmin and other members of the China Democracy Party on Monday night and took them away relatives and the rights group said. The police action was one of the harshest since dissidents announced the formation of the would-be opposition group in June to challenge the ruling Communist Party's monopoly on power. Since then police have questioned briefly detained and harassed the activists but refrained from filing charges. Signaling the leadership's resolve to quash any challenges the party's No. 2 legislative chairman Li Peng was quoted Tuesday as saying that Western-style democracy was inappropriate for China and opposition groups would not be tolerated. If organizations seek ``the multi-party system and try to negate the leadership of the Communist Party then they will not be allowed to exist'' Li told the German business daily Handelsblatt in an interview carried by China's official Xinhua News Agency. Police on Tuesday informed the family of Qin Yongmin that he was arrested for plotting to overthrow the government the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said. The crime carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. In taking Xu Wenli from his home Monday night police produced an arrest warrant and a search warrant that identified him as a criminal suspect said his wife He Xitong. Unlike previous occasions when Xu was held only for short periods she feared this time authorities were planning to charge and convict him. Twenty police officers ransacked their Beijing apartment seizing a computer a fax machine address books video tapes a typewriter more than 1000 pages of documents and even a telephone she said. ``Xu Wenli has already paid heavily for democracy. I understand that he is ready to pay again'' said his wife. ``Xu Wenli won't give up.'' In Washington State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said the United States views Xu's detention ''as a serious step in the wrong direction'' and added that U.S. officials have urged Chinese authorities to release Xu immediately. ''We have said for some weeks now that we are disturbed by the recent number of detentions of dissidents that serve to limit political debate in China'' Rubin said. He said Xu had been ''for peacefully exercising fundamental freedoms guaranteed by international human rights instruments.'' Rubin offered no information on Qin's detention. UR; Qin and Xu are among pick up 10th graf pvs. APW19981201.0041.txt.body.html APW19981201.1298.txt.body.html