Yan Jiaqi (; born December 25, 1942) is a Chinese political scientist and dissident.

Biography

Yan was born on 25 December 1942 in

Wujin District Wujin District (; postal: ''Wutsin'') is a district under the jurisdiction of Changzhou in Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. In 2005 Wujin was ranked as 8th in the top 100 best cities and counties in mainland China. History In ...

Changzhou Changzhou ( Changzhounese: ''Zaon Tsei'', ) is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provin ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

, during the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. In 1959, he entered the

University of Science and Technology of China A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, and then became the director of the Institute of Political Research of 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 ...

, where he published several essays and papers on political reform. In 1986, he published a "theory of leadership". His most famous book, written in collaboration with his wife Gao Gao, was ''Turbulent Decade: A History of the Cultural Revolution''. He became a political advisor of Chinese Premier

Zhao Ziyang Zhao Ziyang ( zh, 赵紫阳; pronounced , 17 October 1919 – 17 January 2005) was a Chinese politician. He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 198 ...

during the 1980s, and was one of the leading intellectuals supporting the student movement in 1989. After the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and 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 ...

, he fled to Paris, France, where he participated in forming the

Federation for a Democratic China Federation for a Democratic China (FDC ) is a Canada based political group that advocates the democratization of China through opposition of the Chinese Communist Party and the support of human rights. It was founded on September 22, 1989 in Paris ...

and was elected the federation's first president. He was expelled from the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

in 1991, while in exile. He is a member of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association and has suggested the formation of a

Federal Republic of China Chinese federalism refers to political theories which argue that China's central government should share sovereignty with regional entities, under a form of federalism. Such proposals were made in the early twentieth century, in connection with th ...

. Jiaqi is one of three subjects in the feature documentary ''The Exiles'' (2022) which won the

Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

for Best Documentary at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

Bibliography

Books written in Chinese translated into English *''Turbulent Decade'' Co-authored with Gao Gao, translated by D.W.Y. Kwok. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1996 *''Toward a Democratic China'' translated by David S. K. Hong and Denis C. Mair. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1992 *''Yan Jiaqi and China's Struggle For Democracy'', translated by David Bachman and Dali L. Yang. M.E.Sharpe Inc. 1992

References

External links

Alliance Introduction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Jiaqi 1942 births Writers from Changzhou Chinese dissidents Living people Charter 08 signatories 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre University of Science and Technology of China alumni