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I-ching Ng

Life in exile has not been easy for the most prominent leader of the 1989 student protests in Tiananmen Square.

Wang Dan  spent almost a decade in jail until 1998, when he was exiled to the US on medical parole.

He has since fought to  keep the memory of the military crackdown alive.

Passing his doctoral candidate exam at Harvard recently came as a relief for the 35-year-old activist, but he says supporting the Chinese democracy movement is still his long-term goal.

'The Chinese government has blocked any information related to June 4 for such a long time that the younger generation has many misunderstandings about the student movement,' he said  in New York.

'Therefore it is crucial we keep publicising the event and reveal the truth of history in order to educate future generations. The lessons of June 4 are too costly to forget.'

Mr Wang is writing his thesis on 'a comparison study of the politics of terror across the straits in the 1950s' and keeps himself busy by conducting lectures about June 4 at public libraries in the US.

He is in demand as a public speaker but there is one place he cannot go: home.

Mr Wang's Chinese passport expired last year and Beijing has ignored his application to have it renewed, leaving him unable to return to the mainland. He can only stay in touch with his elderly parents in Beijing by phone.

'My parents are getting old and they cannot travel to see me anymore,' he said. 'How can people be denied the right to go home and fulfil their family duties just because of different political viewpoints?

'The Chinese government is totally unreasonable. Without the passport, I have  been denied the basic rights of a Chinese citizen.'

Many Chinese activists are similarly stranded in the west without valid travel documents.  Mr Wang says the right to return home will become a main demand of the overseas democratic movement.

To mark this year's anniversary of the crackdown, Mr Wang launched an essay competition that he says received an enthusiastic response from abroad and in China.

'I thought after 15 years, people's memory of June 4 would start to fade away. But this is not the case. It is very touching to see piles of letters and essays flood into our office,' Mr Wang said.

He has compiled these personal essays into an anthology - Recollections of June 4 Participants - to give a full account of the democratic movement from the perspectives of witnesses and participants.

Meanwhile, Mr Wang criticised ex-premier Li Peng's  reported attempt to publish a book in which he denies responsibility for the June 4 massacre.

'It is no use to wipe out history.  Only through discussion of the June 4 incident and sincerely asking forgiveness from the public, can the matter be resolved. Delaying any longer will not do any good.'



Wang Dan struggles to keep sense of outrage alive a long way from home