He Depu (; born 28 October 1956) is a dissident in the People's Republic of China.
Biography
He was employed at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...
in Beijing. Political activist who took part in the
Democracy Wall movement, he was founder of ''Beijing Youth'' magazine in 1979.
In 1998, he helped found the proscribed
China Democracy Party, but lost his job at the
Social Sciences Academy after standing as a candidate in local elections in 1990.
He Depu was tried in a two-hour hearing on 14 October 2002 for his links to the outlawed China Democracy Party, of which he is a member, and for posting essays on the Internet that "incited subversion."
He was one of the 192 signatories of an
open letter to the Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2002.
On 4 November 2002, he was arrested, and received an eight-year sentence for dissident activity on the Internet on 6 November 2003.
In 2008, while in Beijing No. 2 Prison, his health began to deteriorate. He suffered from high blood pressure and did not receive appropriate treatment. In August 2008 he sent a letter to
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...
head
Jacques Rogge
Jacques Jean Marie Rogge, Count Rogge (, ; 2 May 1942 – 29 August 2021) was a Belgian sports administrator and physician who served as the eighth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge beca ...
, decrying the conditions in Chinese prisons, which he claims to have worsened.
He Depu was released from prison on 24 January 2011. The day of his release he was beaten by four police officers.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Depu
1956 births
Living people
People's Republic of China journalists
Chinese dissidents
Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China
Writers from Beijing