•  Home
•  Who We Are
•  What We Do
•  Media Centre
•  Publications
•  Humphrey Award
•  Reference
•  Links
•  Contact Us

Human Rights and Democracy in China

Wei Jingsheng Will Speak to Montrealers

Wei Jingsheng, the celebrated Chinese dissident who was imprisoned for close to 20 years for engaging in peaceful dissent from offical policy, will be in Montreal on May 5, 1998 to talk about human rights and democracy in China.

Montr?al, April 29, 1998Wei Jingsheng, the celebrated Chinese dissident who was imprisoned for close to 20 years for engaging in peaceful dissent from offical policy, will be in Montreal on May 5, 1998 to talk about human rights and democracy in China.

Wei was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1979 for circulating articles he had written advocating democracy, most famously his essay "The Fifth Modernization: Democracy" which described the regime's economic reform program known as "The Four Modernizations" as a new lie in the absence of real political participation by the people. Wei Jingsheng was released as a political gesture in 1993 shortly before the vote on China's abortive bid to host the 2000 Olympics, then arrested once again and sentenced to 14 more years in prison. He was released last November for medical reasons and has been living in the US, where he continues his campaign for democracy in China.

Wei Jingsheng will arrive in Montreal at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 5, 1998 and will meet with Warren Allmand, President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD) and Montreal NGOs at a cocktail reception from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m (63, rue de Br?soles, Old Montreal). A public forum at Universit? du Qu?bec ? Montr?al (UQAM), sponsored by PEN Qu?bec and ICHRDD, will begin at 8:00 p.m in the Salle Marie G?rin-Lajoie, Pavillon Judith-Jasmin, Local J-M400, 405 Ste Catherine Street East (Metro Berri-UQAM). General Admission is $12. Reservations can be made by calling 987-3456.

Journalists are invited to attend the cocktail reception and/or the public forum. Marie Holzman, writer, sinologist, and professor at the University of Paris VII, will act as Wei's French translator during his stay in Montreal.