Radio Free Asia
Date: 2015-08-10
A veteran Chinese dissident who served time in labor camp in the wake of the 1989
Chinese activist Gong Yujian displays a document from his 1994 imprisonment in undated photo.
RFA
Tiananmen Square massacre has defected to Taiwan during a tourist visit to the democratic island.
Gong Yujian, who began a life of political activism after being heavily influenced by the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing, said he had made the decision in a bid to escape constant harassment by the authorities and a nationwide crackdown on critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party under President Xi Jinping.
Gong, who arrived in Taiwan on a tourist visa on July 22, said he had made the decision not to board his return flight with his fellow travelers on Aug. 6, instead applying for political refugee status with authorities in Taipei.
“People like me, who are the targets of persecution in China … live a life of the greatest possible suffering, and fear and pain,” Gong, who was sentenced to two years’ “re-education through labor” in 1994 for his support for the 1989 pro-democracy movement told RFA on Sunday. [FULL STORY]
