Wei Jingsheng

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Wei Jingsheng bigraphy, stories - Chiense democracy activist; dissident writer

Wei Jingsheng : biography

20 May 1950 –

Wei Jingsheng ( born 20 May 1950, Beijing) is a Chinese human rights activist known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement. He is most prominent for having authored the essay, Fifth Modernization, which was posted on the "Democracy Wall" in Beijing in 1978. Due to the manifesto, Wei was arrested and convicted of "counterrevolutionary" activities, and was detained as a political prisoner from 1979–93.Rone Tempest, , Los Angeles Times, 14 September 1993.James D. Seymour, Richard Anderson, "New Ghosts, Old Ghosts:Prisons and Labor Reform Camps in China" (M.E. Sharpe, Inc, 1998), p. 159. Released briefly in 1993, Wei continued with his dissident activities by speaking to visiting journalists, and was imprisoned again from 1994-97, spending a total of 18 years in different prisons. He was deported to the United States on November 16, 1997, on medical parole. Still a Chinese citizen, in 1998 Wei established the Wei Jingsheng Foundation in New York City (now based in Washington D.C.) whose stated aim is to work to improve human rights and democratization in China.

Arrest and imprisonment

Wei was also known for his editorial work in the short-lived magazine Exploration (探索) in 1979. He had also published a letter under his name in March 1979 denouncing the inhuman conditions of the Chinese Qincheng Prison, where the 10th Panchen Lama was imprisoned.

"On March 25, hearing through the grapevine that a crackdown was imminent, Wei and his colleagues rushed out a special edition of Explorations entitled ‘Do We Want Democracy or a New Dictatorship?’"Schell. Discos and Democracy, p. 278. "Wei and some thirty other Democracy Wall activists were rounded up [soon after]. That October, Wei Jingsheng was brought to trial and accused of ‘supplying military intelligence [on China’s war with Vietnam] to a foreigner and of openly agitating for the overthrow of the government of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the socialist system in China.’"Yang, Benjamin. [1998] (1998). Deng: a political biography. M.E. Sharpe publishing. ISBN 1-56324-722-4; ISBN 978-1-56324-722-4. pg 207. Orville Schell, a writer and academic specializing in China, wrote: "For his outspoken views Wei was sentenced to a prison term of 15 years."

Due to his dissident activities, Wei spent a total of 18 years in different prisons in China. The letters that he wrote while he was in prison explaining his views were compiled into a book, The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings. Some of the letters were addressed directly to Deng Xiaoping, others to different family members of Wei.Published in 1997, during Wei’s last year of imprisonment. He remained imprisoned until 14 September 1993, when he was released just one week prior to a vote by the International Olympic Committee over whether to award the 2000 Summer Olympics to Beijing or Sydney. Wei continued to speak out, despite the threat of arrest.Suettinger, Robert. Beyond Tiananmen: The Politics of U.S.-China Relations, 1989–2000. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2003

On 27 February 1994, Wei met with United States Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights John H. Shattuck to discuss human rights conditions in China, and also met with journalists. Wei was arrested the following week along with 15 other democracy and labor activists.Mann, James. About Face: A History of America’s Curious Relationship with China from Nixon to Clinton, 1st ed. New York: Alfred Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 1999. Although released shortly afterward and sent into exile in Tianjin, Wei was arrested once more on 1 April 1994 when he tried to return to Beijing. Charged with plotting against the state, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison, but he would only remain in jail until 16 November 1997, when he was released for "medical reasons" and promptly deported to the United States. He was sent to the United States due to international pressure, especially the request by then US President Bill Clinton.