A pro-democracy activist who helped organize the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was released by China and arrived Thursday in Rhode Island, where he joined another recently freed dissident.
It was the third time in a week Beijing has acted on a case after lobbying from Washington.
Wang Youcai, 37, a physicist, was given medical parole and left the Zhejiang No. 1 prison early in the day, said John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a rights group.
After a midmorning stop in San Francisco, Wang arrived at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick Thursday night. He said he was overwhelmed with his new freedom.
"I'm not sure what exactly is going on," he said through a woman acting as his interpreter. "I need time to clear my head."
Asked if he wanted to thank anyone for his release, he said.
"I can't explain things with words very well. But with my whole heart I have a lot of people to thank," he said.
Wang was greeted with hugs and flowers by recently freed dissident Xu Wenli, who is hosting him and also was in prison in China in the 1990s.
In 1998, Wang and Xu were both sentenced to prison terms of more than a decade for activities related to the founding of the China Democracy Party.
Xu was released from prison in December 2002 and came with his wife to Rhode Island to join their daughter. He currently is a visiting senior fellow at Brown University in Providence.
Wang was also one of more than a dozen student leaders of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations that led to the Tiananmen Square military crackdown. He served a year in prison in 1990 on charges related to those activities.
At the time of the crackdown, Xu was in prison for earlier democratic activities. Released in 1993, Xu first came into contact with Wang when he was detained in 1998. Wang's friends turned to Xu for help, and Xu publicized Wang's plight.
Despite an age gap of more than 20 years, the two ended up working together to found a democratic party in China.
"I think in 1998 the two generations [of the movement for democracy in China] have merged together and started an open democratic party as the opposition party in China," Xu said Thursday, through his daughter, Xu Jin, who acted as a translator.
Although Xu and Wang have talked by phone, they never met in person.
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