Chinese political dissident Jingsheng was arrested in 1979 for demanding democratic reforms from the Communist Party and, except for a brief period of freedom in 1993, has been in prison ever since. This collection of letters to friends, family, and party officials shows a political system bent on control and a man who rejects its tyranny. Jingsheng writes often to party officials, and even as he thanks them for their small favors (letting a relative visit, for example), he reprimands them for their dictatorial policies. One tactic that must madden officials is Jingsheng's ability to effectively turn party doctrine upon itself. What's so striking is Jingsheng's voice: reasonable, calmly assured, and ironic, whether he's deconstructing party positions or asking that the light be turned off in his cell so he can sleep at night. It is appalling that a man of his intelligence and compassion is spending his life locked away. Brian McCombie
From Kirkus Reviews
With the Chinese prison system, as Liu Qing's preface notes, an ``iron curtain behind the iron curtain,'' the publication of letters written from prison by one of the most celebrated and courageous human-rights activists in China is indeed unprecedented. Wei came to prominence in 1978 when he caused a sensation by adding a poster to Beijing's Democracy Wall in which he insisted that the government's Four Modernizations (in industry, agriculture, defense, and science) were inadequate without the addition of a fifth, democracy. It was the culmination of the growing disillusionment of one who had described himself as having been ``a fanatic Maoist.'' After a farce of a trial (captured here in part by a secret tape recording), he was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. For two of those years he was not even allowed to leave his tiny cell, the light was left on all night, his food became increasingly meager, and his health declined precipitously. In 1993, confronted by worldwide criticism of the country's human- rights record, and in an effort to have Beijing declared the site of the next Olympic Games, the Chinese authorities released him. He refused to accept release until they allowed him access to his letters to the Chinese authorities written during confinement. It is remarkable reading--for the skill with which he uses the Communist classics to indict the regime, for his forbearance, for his savage wit, but most of all for his courage in telling the truth. A few months after his release he was arrested again, subjected to a trial where his lawyers had less than a day to review a 1,996-page dossier, and sentenced to another 14 years in prison. The letters gathered here, along with Wei's political essays, offer a unique perspective on the Chinese Communist system, as well as a fascinating record of dissent in modern China. Difficult, often painful reading, but an unforgettable portrait of a man of sublime courage. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Admittedly, these prison writings have neither the literary merit of those of a Vaclav Havel nor the theoretical originality of those of an Antonio Gramsci. Yet despite the impossible circumstances under which they were written, they are an extraordinary and moving record of a courageous, compassionate and obstinate mind dedicated to the democratic principles and the amelioration of the Chinese people's harsh fate... We cannot imagine what he might have written under better circumstances, but what is clear is that this intelligent, committed and empathetic mind has been cruelly wasted by the leaders of the land he loves. -- The New York Times Book Review, Judith Shapiro About the Author
Wei Jingsheng, a former Red Guard, was working as an electrician at the Beijing Zoo in 1978 when he became a leader in the Democracy Wall movement. An outspoken critic of government policy and advocate of individual rights since then, he was imprisoned in China from 1979 to 1993. Rearrested and imprisoned again in early 1994, he is now serving a fourteen-year sentence. In 1996 he won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
