Close to nine years after the crackdown, hundreds of others remain in prison for their role in the 1989 protests. The list below contains the names of 158 individuals from Beijing alone who are serving lengthy prison sentences for their participation in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. This information was primarily compiled by Li Hai , a former Beijing student who was arrested in 1995 for making the list public and subsequently sentenced to a nine-year prison term. Human Rights in China is submitting the following list to Secretary of State Madelaine Albright for her reference as she travels to Beijing later this month to negotiate the terms of President Clinton's upcoming visit to China. Human Rights in China urges the Chinese government to demonstrate its commitment to making genuine improvements in the human rights situation by releasing all of the prisoners on this list, as well as the thousands of other political and religious detainees throughout China.
China is at a critical juncture, facing enormous political, economic and social challenges.
Particularly at such a moment, the country needs activists like Wang Dan, who has demonstrated an intense commitment to the path of peaceful, rational, public advocacy for change which addresses the nation's real problems. He and his fellow activists should be allowed to stay in their country to contribute to the development of a more democratic China in which basic human rights are fully respected. 22 - Susp. No. 2 Print Works - Susp. This means that if the prisoner has behaved well during the two- year period, the sentence is normally commuted to life.