Xu Zhiyong
| Xu Zhiyong 许志永 |
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| Born |
March 2, 1973 Minquan County, Henan, China |
| Alma mater | Lanzhou University, Peking University |
| Occupation | Legal scholar |
| Known for | Civil rights advocacy |
| Spouse(s) | Cui Zheng |
Xu Zhiyong (Chinese: 许志永; pinyin: Xǔ Zhìyǒng; born 1973) is a Chinese civil rights activist and formerly a lecturer at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. He was one of the founders of the NGO Open Constitution Initiative and an active rights lawyer in China who helped those underprivileged. He is the main founder and icon of the New Citizens' Movement in China. In January 2014 he was sentenced to four years in prison for "gathering crowds to disrupt public order".
Xu was born in Minquan County, Henan Province in 1973. He is married to Cui Zheng (崔筝), a journalist. Their daughter was born on January 13, 2014, while Xu was in a detention center facing trial.
Xu received his Bachelor of Law degree from Lanzhou University in 1994 and Doctor of Law degree from Beijing University in 2002.
In 2003, he was elected to the Haidian District People's Congress as an independent. He won the re-election in 2006. However, in the 2011 election, Xu's name was pulled off the candidate list, but he still gathered more than 3,500 votes out of 22,000 voters in his district.
Unlike other human rights activists, Xu firmly and carefully pushed his calls for political change and social justice in existing laws, and his group has been regarded as relatively cautious and conservative. In his recent interview before his arrest, he described his dream
In 2009, July 29, he was arrested at his home, and detained by Chinese authorities on charges of tax evasion. At the same time Xu's colleague Zhuang Lu was also arrested by authorities.
The Open Constitution Initiative, which Xu co-founded, was fined 1.46 million RMB on July 14, 2009 for 'dodging taxes' and was shut down by the authorities by declaring it "illegal".
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Wikipedia