Wu Guoguang is a native of Shandong

Shandong

' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...

 Province, a renowned Chinese scholar, and a member of the Office for Restructuring Central Politics during the tenure of Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang

Zhao Ziyang

Zhao Ziyang was a high-ranking politician in the People's Republic of China . He was the third Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989....

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Education

Wu holds a B.A. in journalism from Beijing University, an M.A. in law from the Chinese Academic of Social Sciences, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

. He has been a sent-down youth

Sent-down youth

Sent-down youth refers to urban youth sent to the mountain or farming areas to "receive reeducation from poor and lower middle peasants" during the late 1960s and early 1970s under China's Down to the Countryside Movement....

, a factory assistant, secretary to the president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences , established in 1977, is the premier and highest academic research organization in the fields of philosophy and social sciences as well as a national center for comprehensive studies in the People's Republic of China. It was described by Foreign Policy...

, chief editor of the department of current affairs at the People's Daily

People's Daily

The People's Daily is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. The paper is an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China , published worldwide with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. In addition to its main Chinese-language edition, it has editions in English,...

, and a member of the Office for Restructuring Central Politics. From 1986 to 1987, he participated in researching and formulating the Chinese Communist Party's policy on political reform, and, as an assistant to Zhao Ziyang's political secretary, Bao Tong

Bao Tong

Bao Tong was former Director of the Office of Political Reform of the CPC Central Committee and the Policy Secretary of Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the State Council, from 1980 to 1985. He was also Director of the Drafting Committee for the CCP 13th Party Congresses, known for its strong support for...

, was one of the drafters of the Chinese Communist Party's '13th General Meeting' report on political reform. He is intimately familiar with Zhao's thought about and efforts on behalf of political reform. Later he resigned in response to the government's handling 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...

. He was interviewed about the protests in the documentary film The Gate of Heavenly Peace

The Gate of Heavenly Peace (documentary)

The Gate of Heavenly Peace is a 1995 documentary film, produced by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton, about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.-Synopsis:...

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After 1989

Wu was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

, a Luce Fellow at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, and a Wang An Post-Doctoral Fellow at the John King Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. He was also an assistant and an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Chinese University of Hong Kong

The Chinese University of Hong Kong is a research-led university in Hong Kong.CUHK is the only tertiary education institution in Hong Kong with Nobel Prize winners on its faculty, including Chen Ning Yang, James Mirrlees, Robert Alexander Mundell and Charles K. Kao...

, and is currently a professor at the University of Victoria

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria, often referred to as UVic, is the second oldest public research university in British Columbia, Canada. It is a research intensive university located in Saanich and Oak Bay, about northeast of downtown Victoria. The University's annual enrollment is about 20,000 students...

, where he teaches in the Departments of Political Science and History and holds the China Program Chair at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives.