Li Hai is a Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....

. He was a philosophy student at Peking University

Peking University

Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...

 at the time of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...

. In May 1990 he was first arrested for his role in the Tiananmen protests, and later expelled from Peking University. In 1995 Li was one of 56 signatories to a pro-democracy statement, which led to another detainment. Li was charged for "prying into state secrets"—he collected data on "names, age, family situation, crime, length of sentence, location of imprisonment, treatment while imprisoned" of fellow dissidents—, and sentenced to nine years in prison in December 1996.

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