China Dissident To Lecture At Columbia

A prominent voice in China’s pro-democracy movement will be a visiting scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

The school announced Wednesday that Wei Jingsheng accepted the appointment. He will lecture and hold workshops while pursuing his own writing and human rights work.

He also will be treated at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and its School of Dental and Oral Surgery for a variety of ailments that developed during his long imprisonment. The Chinese government allowed him to fly to the United States on Nov. 16.

Wei was a political prisoner in China for all but six months of the last 18 years.

At Columbia, Wei will be reunited with a colleague from the Chinese democracy movement, Tong Yi, who is studying for a master’s degree in political science.