Hu Jia has always felt a sense of solidarity with the underprivileged, the weak and the oppressed. But when he started fighting for their rights about a decade ago, he could not have known his public spirit would one day land him in the gravest trouble.
Hu - one of the mainland's most high-profile activists - is scheduled to be released today after he was jailed for 31/2years on subversion charges.
Hu, 37, started out as an environmental activist concerned about desertification and the preservation of Tibetan antelopes. He later turned to helping HIV/Aids patients and also became an avid chronicler of rights abuses, disseminating information about fellow activists in trouble - a cause that eventually landed him in jail.
A mild-mannered, quietly spoken, bookish man who converted to Buddhism in his twenties, he did not set out to become a radical. To those who know him, he was just a public-spirited and single-minded young man who was dedicated to helping others and advancing his country.
An interview published in state newspaper China Youth Daily in 2001 portrayed him as a 'quiet, gentle, courteous and humble' 27-year-old volunteer so devoted to his environmental protection work that his girlfriend ditched him for not having a proper job.
'He should be an example for our young people,' the article said.
Less than seven years later, this exemplary young man was jailed for 'inciting subversion of state sovereignty' by posting articles on the internet on rights abuses and speaking to foreign reporters. His attempts to help other activists in trouble and to connect them with the media proved too much of a challenge to the ruling Communist Party's authority.