Xu Wanping freed after nine years in prison

Veteran Chongqing dissident Xu Wanping (许万平) was released after serving nine years of a 12-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power.” Xu was released at 6:30 a.m. and taken to his home by prison authorities. Xu still must endure four years of post-release deprivation of political rights.

Sources told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that Xu was in poor health throughout his imprisonment, suffering from digestive, prostate, and various other conditions. Despite multiple requests, he was denied medical parole or even medical exams. When Xu Wanping’s mother passed away on October 10, 2013, sources say, the authorities refused to allow him to attend the funeral. His wife, Chen Xianying (陈贤英), was beaten badly by prison authorities while visiting Xu Wanping.

Xu was born in 1963, and spent almost half his life—twenty years—in prison. In 1989, his participation in the Democracy Movement led to eight years in prison. In 1998, he was ordered to serve three years of Reeducation-Through-Labor as a result of his involvement in the founding of the Chinese Democracy Party.

He was arrested on June 3, 2004 for drug trafficking while helping plan June Fourth commemorative activities. In 2005, under the pretext of large anti-Japanese marches and protests in March and April, authorities in different parts of the country moved to crackdown on dissidents. Xu was detained on April 30, arrested on May 24 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power,” and convicted and sentenced in December 2005. He served his prison term at the Chongqing Yuzhou prison.