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Distributed March 4, 2004
Contact Ricardo Howell

Chinese democracy activist Wang Youcai, one of the leaders of the 1989 student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square will arrive in Providence, R.I., tonight (Thursday, March 4, 2004). Wang, who was first imprisoned in 1998, was given medical parole earlier today. Wang's stay in the United States will be sponsored by Chinese dissident Xu Wenli, visiting senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Chinese pro-democracy activist Wang Youcai, who was released from Chinese prison earlier today, will arrive at T.F. Greene airport at 11 p.m. on Thursday, March 4, 2004. Wang, who was one of the student leaders of the 1989 student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, had been imprisoned since 1998, when he was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the crime of subversion.

At the airport Wang will be greeted by fellow Chinese dissident Xu Wenli, along with other freed Chinese. Xu, who is noted as the father of the Chinese pro-democracy movement, was similarly arrested in the government’s 1998 crackdown on pro-democracy activists. In 2002 Xu emigrated to the United States after receiving medical parole from Chinese prison and now serves as senior visiting fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute.

Wang is scheduled to arrive on United Airlines flight 8028 from Washington, D.C. His arrival will unite two generations of Chinese pro-democracy activists for the first time.

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