Wei Jingsheng

Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng
Chinese	魏京生
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Wèi Jīngshēng
IPA	[wêɪ tɕíŋʂə́ŋ]

Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng
魏京生
	Wei at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the 25th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize, 20 November 2013
Born	20 May 1950 (age 74); Beijing, China
Education	High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China
Occupations	Writer; human rights activist;
Known for	Leader of Democracy Wall Movement
Awards	Olof Palme Prize; Sakharov Prize; Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award;

Wei Jingsheng (Chinese: 魏京生; born 20 May 1950) is a Chinese human rights activist and dissident. He is best known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement. He is most prominent for having authored the essay "The Fifth Modernization", which was posted on the Democracy Wall in Beijing in 1978. As punishment for writing his manifesto, Wei was arrested and convicted of "counter-revolutionary" activities, and he was detained as a political prisoner from 1979 to 1993.^[1]^[2] Briefly released in 1993, Wei continued to engage in his dissident activities by speaking to visiting journalists, and as punishment, he was imprisoned again from 1994 to 1997, making it a total of 18 years he has spent in various prisons. He was deported to the United States of America on 16 November 1997, on medical parole.^[3] 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 advocate democratisation in China.

^ Rone Tempest, "Longtime Prisoner Freed in China", 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.
^ Jingsheng, Wei (1997). The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings. New York: Penguin. p. Introduction.

[1] Rone Tempest, "Longtime Prisoner Freed in China", Los Angeles Times, 14 September 1993.

[2] James D. Seymour, Richard Anderson, "New Ghosts, Old Ghosts:Prisons and Labor Reform Camps in China" (M.E. Sharpe, Inc, 1998), p. 159.

[Wei-3] Jingsheng, Wei (1997). The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings. New York: Penguin. p. Introduction.

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