Student Leaders: Wang Chaohua, Wang Dan, Wei Jingsheng

Wang Chaohua

Wang Chaohua was one of the two women on the "21 Most Wanted Beijing Student Leaders" list posted by the Chinese government after the Tiananmen Square incident. After June 4, she spent 6 months in hiding and then she escaped to Los Angeles in March 1990. She received a PhD in modern Chinese Literature at UCLA. She is now a freelance writer. In the documentary "Moving the Mountain", filmed in 1994, she expressed her thoughts and regrets about the past, such as how those students at Tiananmen Square could have died as a result of the student leaders actions.

Wang Dan

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Wang Dan was the most wanted in the "21 Most Wanted Beijing Student Leaders" list. He was politically active student at Peking University and after June 4 incident, he was imprisoned for 4 years. After parole in 1993, he began to write for publications overseas. He was then suspected that he was conspiring to overthrow the government and was imprisoned for 11 years. In 1998, he was flown to the US on medical parole. He then studied in Harvard University in 1998 and received a master's in East Asian history in 2001 and Ph.D. in 2008. Wang Dan is still active in promoting democracy in China, he travels the world garnering support from overseas Chinese communities.

Wei Jingsheng

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Wei Jingsheng was a red guard when he was 16. When Deng Xiaoping came into power and repudiated the cultural revolution, Wei Jingsheng attacked the government, one of the very few who denounced Deng. In 1979, Wei Jingsheng was imprisoned for passing military secrets. He wrote a letter denouncing the inhumane conditions in the prison. He was detained until 1997 and was deported to the US for "medical reasons". He has won many awards for his work for democracy and has been praised as the "Father of Chinese Democracy" and "Nelson Mandela of China". He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. In the film, "Moving the Mountain", he gives his comment about the incident as a more experienced activist.