Beijing (AsiaNews / CHRD) - The Democratic activist She Wangbao will be released on March 6, after more than 10 years in prison. She, 50, is one of the leaders of the movement that wanted to found a democratic party in China in the 90s.
She Wangbao had already been jailed for four years for taking part in the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square and was released in '93. He was arrested again in '99 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for "subversion against the state. His "guilt" having participated in the preparatory committee for the founding of the China Democracy Party (CDP), organizing protests and demanding the release of some political prisoners. The sentence was reduced to 14 months.
The CDP was an attempt at organized association to ask, by non-violent means, for the end of the single party rule in China and the birth of a Democratic Party. It spread to 29 provinces of China and had the support of the Chinese abroad, the movement was quickly wiped out by Chinese police. At least 40 of its members were arrested and 20 of them are still in prison.
In the past, some of its leaders, Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin and Wang Youcai were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The idea of democracy has been present in Chinese history since the end of the Qing Empire (1911). But the ruling Communist Party continues to assert that democracy and the end of a single party rule are just "Western myths" that are ill-suited to the culture of China.