To Build a Free China : A Citizen's Journey

The story of China's rights movement—a struggle for basic human rights and democracy that, despite harsh repression, has endured for more than a decade—unfolds in Xu Zhiyong's compelling personal memoir. In recognition of his work as an activist, lawyer, and founder of the New Citizen Movement, Dr. Xu was named one of Asia Weekly's People of the Year in 2005 and one of the Southern People’s Weekly’s Top Ten Young Leaders of China in 2006. His efforts have been considerably less well received, however, by the government of the PRC, and he has been arrested numerous times. Dr. Xu has been serving a four-year prison sentence since 2013 for "gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place." His moving statement at the end of his trial, hailed as the China Manifesto, is included in To Build a Free China.