XU Wei
Name in Chinese: 徐伟
Sentence: 10 years in prison
Reporter for Xiaofei Ribao (Consumer Daily), arrested March 13, 2001 along with Jin Haike, Yang Zili, and Zhang Honghai after participating in the New Youth Study Group (新青年学会), an informal gathering of individuals concerned with political and economic inequalities, government corruption and political reform, who used the internet to circulate relevant articles. Xu was finally sentenced on May 28, 2003 to ten years in prison on charges of subversion. He has suffered ill-treatment in prison and has gone on hunger strike several times.
In an article written for the Washington Post in 2004, Philip P. Pan, describes Xu as one of the most mature and even-tempered members of the club, “a tall, bookish newspaper reporter and Communist Party member who clung to a Marxist ideology”.
The New Youth Study Group “were college kids and recent graduates … who had come to Beijing from the provinces for an education and who enjoyed arguing about what could be done to change China and help its less fortunate.”
Learn More about XU Wei
A Study Group is Crushed in China's Grip
Read Philip P. Pan's harrowing account in the Washington Post of how the New Youth Study Group was infiltrated and broken up with the arrest of Xu Wei and his colleagues.
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