Wang Xiaoning () is a Chinese engineer and

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established Political system, political or Organized religion, religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and ...

from

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...

who was arrested by authorities of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

for publishing pro-democracy material online using his

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

account. In September 2003, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. In 2007, his wife filed a lawsuit against Yahoo! for providing Wang's private information to the authorities; the suit was settled out of court. Wang was released in August 2012.

Arrest and imprisonment

In 2000 and 2001, Wang, who was an engineer by profession, posted electronic journals in a Yahoo! group calling for democratic reform and an end to single-party rule. He was arrested in September 2002, after

assisted Chinese authorities by providing information used to identify him. In September 2003, Wang was convicted a charge of "

incitement to subvert 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.

Lawsuit against Yahoo!

On April 18, 2007, Xiaoning's wife Yu Ling and the World Organization for Human Rights USA sued Yahoo! under the Alien Torts Statute (28 U.S.C. § 1350) and

Torture Victim Protection Act The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (TVPA; ) is a statute that allows for the filing of civil suits in the United States against individuals who, acting in an official capacity for any foreign nation, committed torture and/or extrajudicial ...

of 1991 (TVPA), 106 Stat. 73 (1992) in federal court in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Described as potentially "an important test case", the suit was one of the first attempts to hold a corporation responsible for overseas human rights violations. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

's administration opposed the suit. Wang Xiaoning was named as a

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...

in the Yahoo! suit, as was Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist detained and convicted on state security charges for emailing a description of Chinese’s government’s instructions to journalists for the upcoming anniversary of the 1989

Tiananmen Square Massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

Shi had also been identified by information provided by Yahoo! The World Organization for Human Rights USA executive director, Morton Sklar, stated: "Yahoo is guilty of 'an act of corporate irresponsibility ... Yahoo had reason to know that if they provided China with identification information that those individuals would be arrested." After unsuccessfully seeking to have the suit dismissed, Yahoo! settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Release

Wang Xiaoning was released from prison on 31 August 2012. On his release he was informed of political and communications restrictions to which he is required to conform. His wife described him as in "relatively good" condition, but said he was "a little frail and gasping".

References

External links

Wang Xiaoning's essays
(in Chinese)
Wang Xiaoning, Yu Ling and Shi Tao v. Yahoo! Inc., Yahoo! Holdings (Hong Kong), Ltd. and Alibaba.com, Inc.
lawsuit filings, briefs, declarations motions and other documents. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Xiaoning Chinese dissidents Chinese prisoners and detainees Free speech activists Living people Writers from Shenyang Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China Yahoo! People's Republic of China essayists Year of birth missing (living people)

Arrest and imprisonment

Release

See also

References

External links