Wang Dan (dissident) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Wang Dan
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Wang Dan in 2009
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| Born | 26 February 1969 Beijing, China
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| Chinese | 王丹 | ||||||||||||||||
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Wang Dan (Chinese: 王丹; born on February 26, 1969) is a leader who works for democracy in China. He was one of the main student leaders during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He earned a PhD in history from Harvard University. From 2009 to 2015, Wang taught history at universities in Taiwan.
Besides his research, Wang is an activist who promotes democracy in China. He lives in the United States and travels to get support from Chinese people living abroad and from the public.
Contents
Wang Dan's Life Story
Wang Dan was born in 1969. He was a student at Peking University and was very active in politics. He organized "Democracy Salons" at his school, which were like discussion groups about democracy.
Student Protests and Arrests
In 1989, Wang Dan joined a big student movement that led to the Tiananmen Square protests. He became a representative for Peking University in the movement's organizing group. After the protests, he was put on a "most wanted" list of 21 people. Wang went into hiding but was arrested on July 2, 1989.
In 1991, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He was released early in 1993. After his release, he continued to write articles about politics for publications outside mainland China. Because of this, he was arrested again in 1995. In 1996, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for working against the government. However, he was released early again and sent to the United States.
Studying and Activism Abroad
After arriving in the United States in 1998, Wang Dan continued his university studies at Harvard University. He earned his master's degree in East Asian history in 2001 and his PhD in 2008. In 2009, he also did research on how democracy developed in Taiwan while at Oxford University.
Wang Dan has appeared in documentaries about the Tiananmen Square protests, such as The Beijing Crackdown and Moving the Mountain. He was also mentioned in Shen Tong's book Almost a Revolution.
Wang Dan is not allowed to enter mainland China. In 2004, he tried to visit Hong Kong but was not allowed in. In 2012, he finally landed in Hong Kong during a typhoon, but he had to stay in the airport's restricted area because he didn't have a visa.
Time in Prison
After the government stopped the 1989 protests, Wang Dan was put on a list of the 21 most wanted student leaders. He was arrested on July 2, 1989, and spent almost two years in jail before his trial in 1991. Wang was accused of spreading ideas against the government. He was sentenced to four years in prison. This was a shorter sentence compared to what some other political prisoners received. People thought this might be because the government wasn't sure what to do with so many students, and they felt pressure because Wang was well-known.
While in prison, Wang spent two years at Qincheng Prison, which held many political prisoners. Even though cells were usually crowded, Wang had his own cell because of his important case.
Wang was released in 1993, a few months before his sentence ended. He believed this was likely connected to China's first attempt to host the Olympic Games. He and 19 other political prisoners were released just a month before the International Olympic Committee was set to visit.
Soon after his release in 1993, Wang began to promote democracy in China. He also contacted political activists who had been sent away to the United States. He was arrested a second time in May 1995, after an interview with a US magazine. In this interview, he talked about building a "civil society" by focusing on social movements, not just political ones. Wang was held for 17 months before being charged with "plotting to overthrow the government." He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Instead of serving his full sentence, he was released in 1998 for "medical reasons." He was immediately sent to the US as an exiled political activist. His release and move to the United States happened after an agreement between the US and China. The US stopped supporting a resolution that criticized China at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and in return, China released political prisoners like Wang.
Life in the United States
After Wang arrived in the United States, he continued to speak out against the Chinese government. Wang believes the government must change. In an interview, he said that for democracy in China, the country needs "independent intellectuals, independent economic actors, independent spirits."
Wang received his PhD from Harvard University in 2008. He continues to work for change in China. He has written articles like "20 years after Tiananmen," which looks at how economic changes have affected Chinese people and suggests improvements for human rights. He also wrote "Rebuild China with an Olympic Amnesty," hoping that big international events like the Olympic Games could highlight human rights issues in China. In 2007, Wang's second prison sentence officially ended.
Activism and Teaching
Wang has been very active since his release from China. He has published articles and given many public interviews. Being in the United States allowed him to finish his education at Harvard University. He also became the chairman of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association.
From 2010 to 2015, Wang taught history at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan. In November 2010, while he was teaching, a woman with a knife entered his classroom. He was able to take the knife from her before she could hurt him. He said this was the first time he faced what seemed like an attempt on his life. The woman had reportedly been following Wang for three years.
Wang has a Facebook page, which he hopes to use to talk with people in mainland China. He is also a member of the WikiLeaks advisory board and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation.
Zoom Meeting Incident
On June 3, 2020, an online event hosted by Wang on Zoom in the United States was stopped, and his Zoom account was blocked. This led to US lawmakers asking Zoom Video Communications to explain their connection with China regarding freedom of speech. Zoom apologized, saying they were confused by requests from China to block the event. They promised not to block events outside of China again.
Wang Dan's Ideas
Thoughts on Tiananmen
Wang Dan believes there were many things that could have been done differently during the 1989 student movement. In a 1989 interview, he said that future student movements should be based on solid goals, like making campus life more democratic or achieving civil rights. Otherwise, he felt, it could lead to chaos.
He also thought that smart thinkers (intellectuals) should have been involved earlier in the movement. Despite these points, Wang feels the protests changed how many Chinese people thought. He argued that the hunger strike was important because it brought more attention to the movement. He also believes the government's actions against the protests, and the push for democracy, made the whole nation pay attention and taught many Chinese people about democracy, which was a new idea for them.
Views on Democracy
Wang has said that wanting to become wealthy can help push for democracy. He believed that the Tiananmen Square movement was not ready for workers to join because democracy first needed to be understood by students and intellectuals before they could share it with others.
China's Economy
At a press conference in Toronto in 2009, Wang commented on the idea that "for economic improvement, anything can be done, even killing people." He said that this idea shows that the Tiananmen Massacre is still happening, just in different ways. In 1989, students' lives were taken physically, but today, he believes, the minds of the world are being harmed spiritually.
See also
- List of Chinese dissidents
