Mianyang
Mianyang (; formerly known as Mienchow) is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and thre ...
,
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
on 9 November 1968, is a
Chinese dissident
This list consists of activists who are known as Chinese dissidents. The label is primarily applied to intellectuals who "push the boundaries" of society or criticize the policies of the government. Examples of the former include Wei Hui and Jia ...
. As a student, he was one of the leaders of the student democracy movement, known through the Tiananmen Square 1989 protest. He became general manager of an investment company, and one of the founders of the unrecognized Social Democratic Party. Mao was recently detained on 19 February 2011, and held at Mianyang Municipal Detention Center before being released into residential surveillance on 2 December 2011.Qiao Long and Luisetta Mudie Activist Released 'Under Surveillance' Radio Free Asia, 2 December 2011.
Biography
Ding Mao was a philosophy student at
Lanzhou University
Lanzhou University () is a major research university in Lanzhou, Gansu, China. Founded in 1909, it is one of the key universities under China's Ministry of Education (Double First Class University Plan, former Project 985 and Project 211). It ...
in the late 1980s. There he became a student leader of the 1989 pro-democracy protests. He was twice imprisoned for his activism, first in 1989 and again in 1992 when he was arrested for organizing the Social Democratic Party. He has spent a total of 10 years in jail.
Detention during Jasmine Crackdown
On 19 February 2011, Mao was detained in
Chengdu
Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...
, Sichuan Province by police on "
inciting subversion of state power
Inciting subversion of state power () is a crime under the law of the People's Republic of China. It is article 105, paragraph 2 of the 1997 revision of the People's Republic of China's Penal Code. He was held at Mianyang Municipal Detention Centre for 286 days before being released into residential supervision.
Police in Mianyang City had blocked meetings between Ding and a lawyer hired for him by his family because, claiming that Ding's case "involved state secrets".
See also
*
2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests
The 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, also known as the Greater Chinese Democratic Colour revolution, Jasmine Revolution, refer to public assemblies in over a dozen cities in China starting on 20 February 2011, inspired by and named after th ...