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Tiananmen, 15 Years On
Where Are Some of the “Most Wanted” Participants Today?
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Wang
Juntao
“Tiananmen changed Chinese history. It was a benchmark in Chinese political
development, furthering the liberal trend of the 1980s and destroying the legitimacy
of the Chinese Communist Party.”
—May 2004
Wang Juntao, accused by the Chinese government of being one of the “black hands
behind the black hands” was sentenced to a thirteen-year prison term on February
12, 1991. The charges against him included manipulating the Tiananmen protestors
in an abortive attempt to overthrow the government. He spent four months on the
run before being caught. At the time of the pro-democracy movement, Wang was
working at the Beijing Social and Economic Sciences Research Institute (SERI),
China’s first independent think-tank. As one of its co-founders, he served as
deputy editor of Jingjixue Zhoubao (Economics Weekly), the institute’s newspaper,
and was engaged in several research projects.
On April 23, 1994, ill with hepatitis, Wang was exiled to the U.S. He spent a
year at Harvard’s Fairbanks Center as a visiting scholar, followed by a year
as a Neiman fellow, also at Harvard, and a third year as a Mason fellow at the
Kennedy School. After graduation in 1997 with a Masters in Public Administration,
Wang enrolled at Columbia University, earning a masters degree in political science
in 2000, followed by the start of work on his dissertation, tentatively entitled “The
Rise of Neo-conservatism in China in the 1990s.”
Wang first became involved in dissident politics at the end of Mao Zedong’s Cultural
Revolution in 1976 when he protested against the “gang of four,” responsible
for furthering many of the excesses of the period. He was all of sixteen years
old at the time. In 1978-81, then a physics major at Beijing University, Wang
helped further the Democracy Wall movement.
More Profiles:
Wang
Dan
“ The future for democracy in China is dependent not just on political institutions
but on the growth of a vibrant civil society.”
—May 25, 2004 |
Feng
Congde
“Tiananmen was the beginning of the end of the communist camp. It was a wake-up
call to Chinese inside and outside China.”
—May 2004 |
Zhang
Boli
“1989 stands out as a beautiful moment. We stood up. It wasn’t easy.
Overturning the government’s official verdict isn’t important; what’s important
is what we did. History will judge us properly.”
—June 2, 2004 |
Liu
Gang
“We didn’t failfailure is the mother of success. There’ll be more chancesand
we have more experience.”
—May 2004 |
Zheng
Yi
Zheng worked with other intellectuals to craft statements of support for
the students including the famous “Declaration of May 16.” |
Wang
Chaohua
“I jumped into the center of the movement. I thought I could
make a decision for myself....But this...decision had repercussions
for others, including ones I love dearly.”
—May 26, 2004 |
Li
Lu
“Once in [Tiananmen] Square you did anything and
everything that needed doing.” |
Zheng
Xuguang
“Within the movement we consistently adhered to the
principles of peace, reason and nonviolence.”
—1993 “Peace Charter” |
Zhang
Ming
Accused
of inciting subversion and attempting to overthrow the socialist
system, Zhang was sentenced in January 1991 to a three-year term. |
Xiong
Yan
“We believe, no matter whether the government does or does not, that history
will recognize this movement as a patriotic and democratic movement….”
—May 1989 |
Wang
Juntao
“Tiananmen changed Chinese history. It was a benchmark in Chinese
political development, furthering the liberal trend of the 1980s and
destroying the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party.”
—May 2004 |
Ma
Shaofang
Ma Shaofang, the former Beijing Film Academy student who
was No. 10 on the most wanted student list, has remained politically
active in China. |
Wang
Youcai
“The development of a democratic system is crucially
important. Democracy is the only way to avoid a second Tiananmen.”
—May 2004 |
Yang
Tao
Authorities charged Yang Tao had been an instigator of a “counterrevolutionary
rebellion,” had “advocated bourgeois liberalism,” and “wantonly
attacked Marxism.” |
Han
Dongfang
“1989 was the very first time the Chinese people themselves directly
faced the regime. Before that time, there was only hope.
—May 2004 |
Zhou
Fengsuo
“It was the one time I experienced the beautiful
character of the Chinese people longing for a democratic China
where we could freely speak our minds.”
—May 2004 |
Zhang
Zhiqing
Zhang Zhiqing, No. 16 on “Wanted List 1,” disappeared from view shortly
after June 4, 1989. None of the other students on the most wanted list
has heard from him since. |
Yan
Jiaqi
By the time the 1989 protests came to a head, Yan Jiaqi had
years of experience in reform politics, working both inside and
outside the system. |
Lu
Jinghua
“Tiananmen 100 percent changed my life. Even since ’89, I’ve tried
to make people understand what life without human rights is really
all about.”
—May 24, 2004 |
Fang
Lizhi
“June 4, 1989 was one of the most important events of the
last century.”
—May 2004 |
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Reports
 Nipped in the Bud: The Suppression of the China Democracy Party
Slamming the Door on Dissent: Wang Dan’s Trial and the New “State Security” Era
Leaking State Secrets: The Case of Gao Yu
China: Enforced Exile of Dissidents" Government "Re-entry Blacklist" Revealed
Further Reading

Chinese Scholars Detained
Human Rights Watch Campaign Document
Tiananmen
Mother’s Campaign
Off-Site Link
Dr.
Jiang Yanyong’s Letter and Petition
Off-Site Link
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