MCLC: Fang Lizhi dies

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bill (billgoldman at mac.com)
Subject: Fang Lizhi dies
*******************************************************

The first university I taught in, for my first year in China, was Beijing
University of Science and Technology. If I ever knew then that it had been
honoured by this man's having been a professor there and his having been
heroically outspoken in 1989, I must have forgotten. I am myself honoured
by having taught and lived there, or at least I feel so honoured.

Bill

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Source: The Guardian (7/4/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/07/chinese-democracy-fang-lizhi-di
es/

 Chinese democracy activist Fang Lizhi dies in US

Fang Lizhi, one of China's most famous dissidents, whose speeches inspired
student protesters throughout the 1980s, has died in the US, where he fled
after China's 1989 military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. He
was 76.

Once China's leading astrophysicist, Fang and his wife hid in the US
Embassy for 13 months after the crackdown. In exile, he was a physics
professor at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

Fang's friend and fellow US-based exiled dissident Wang Dan wrote on
Facebook and Twitter that Fang's death on Friday in Tucson was sudden and
that he learned of it from Fang's wife. Wang confirmed his comments to AP
in Beijing but declined an interview.

"I hope the Chinese people will never forget that there was once a thinker
like Fang Lizhi. He inspired the '89 generation, and awoke in the people
their yearning for human rights and democracy," Wang wrote. "One day,
China will be proud to once have had Fang Lizhi."

"Fang is my spiritual teacher, his death is a major blow to me. At this
moment, my grief is beyond words," Wang wrote.
The son of a postal clerk in Hangzhou, Fang was admitted to Beijing
University in 1952, aged 16, to study theoretical physics and nuclear
physics. He became one of China's pioneer researchers in laser theory.

He burst into political prominence during pro-democracy student
demonstrations of 1986-8 when he became China's most outspoken and
eloquent proponent of democratic reform. Authorities alleged his speeches
to students at the University of Science and Technology, where he was
vice-president, incited unrest.

Fang was expelled from the Communist party and sacked from his university
post. But he refused to be silenced and received letters of support from
across the country almost daily.

After the 4 June 1989 military crackdown that crushed the seven-week
pro-democracy movement, Fang and his wife fled into the US embassy.

Fang and Li had both been named in Chinese warrants that could have
carried death sentences upon conviction. American diplomats refused to
turn them over to Chinese authorities.

China's decision to allow the couple to leave the country a year later
eliminated a major obstacle to bettering China-US relations, which had
deteriorated badly after the crackdown, which left hundreds and perhaps
thousands dead.