Ren Wanding is a world famous Chinese dissident.
Wanding grew up in Jiangsu Province, and graduated from the University of Beijing. He was working as a labourer when he joined the Beijing Spring Movement in 1978 and posted a 19 page manifesto calling for free elections and the abolition of China’s secret police.
An organiser of the unofficial League of Human Rights, Wanding was imprisoned in view of western media in 1979 and kept detained without charge for four years – in a cell of less than 10 by 10 feet.
In 1989 he was arrested again and sentenced to 7 years in prison for his pro-democracy activism. After serving his full sentence, Wanding attempted to register the China Democracy Party as a legal political party, but was prevented from filing his application by state police.
