Xu Wenli

He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, only to be unexpectedly released from prison on December 24, 2002, eight years shy of his scheduled release. Having collectively spent 16 years in custody since 1981, Wenli arrived in the US on December 25, 2002 and has since spent his time meeting with reporters and reuniting with his wife and daughter.

Wenli was first imprisoned during the 1979-81 Democracy Wall movement. At that time, he helped launch "April Fifth Forum," a major dissident journal, and in November 1979 he put up a poster on the Democracy Wall. He wrote a twenty-point list of suggestions to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, circulated a private newsletter, gave numerous interviews to foreign journalists and television stations emphasizing the need for democracy in a Marxist society, and published several articles in Hong Kong under a pseudonym.

Regarded as a moderate within the movement, Wenli publicly protested the arrests of fellow Democracy Wall activists Wei Jingsheng and Liu Qing. Due to this bold statement of public discord, he was arrested on October 4, 1981 and sentenced on June 8, 1982 to fifteen years for "illegally organizing a clique to overthrow the government." Late 1985, he managed to smuggle out a detailed account entitled "My Defense Statement," about his arrest, trial, and general treatment in prison, including his 200 interrogation sessions. Following the document's publication outside of China in 1986, Wenli was moved to a windowless cell measuring only three square meters, where he spent three and a half years.

In 1993, after serving twelve years, eleven of which were in solitary confinement, Wenli was released, but was repeatedly held for questioning thereafter and accused of violating his parole. After securing the restoration of his political rights in October 1996, he openly returned to political activities. Since then, he has been involved in criticizing China's human rights record to the foreign press, mobilizing dissidents in China, expanding his overseas contacts, and taking an active role in formulating dissident strategies and tactics.

Wenli is a man dedicated to a more free and open society for the people of his country, and remains an inspiration to activists throughout the world. Currently Wenli is the Visiting Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.