Wei Jingsheng
Chinese democracy activist and dissident
Wei Jingsheng (魏京生, born 20 May 1950, Beijing) is a Chinese human rights activist. He is the main leader of the Democracy Wall Movement in 1979. Wei was sentenced to prison because he criticized the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and he has spent more than 18 years in prison.
Wei was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in 1994, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award in 1996, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1996 and the National Endowment for Democracy Award in 1997. Wei Jingsheng has been nominated seven times for Nobel Peace Prize since 1993.
Wei is also the Chairman of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition and the Chairman of the Wei Jingsheng Foundation. Now Wei lives in Washington, D.C.