Dissident physicist Xu Liangying dies, aged 92
He dedicated much of his life to speaking up for democratic reform and political freedom
Xu Liangying, a dissident physicist who devoted much of his life to speaking up for democracy and political freedom, died in a Beijing hospital yesterday afternoon. He was 92.
He died of complications several weeks after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, said his son, University of Hong Kong economics professor Xu Chenggang . Xu Liangying's wife, Wang Laidi , a historian, died just four weeks ago.
The couple had spent the past two decades working together on a book, almost completed, which aimed to introduce the concepts and origins of democracy to Chinese readers.
"I think his legacy is his consistent push for the understanding of and his defence of democracy and human rights - and this is not easy in China," Xu Chenggang said.
Xu Liangying won the 1995 Heinz Pagels Human Rights Prize and the 2008 Andrei Sakharov Prize.
The Sakharov prize committee said he was recognised for "a lifetime's advocacy of truth, democracy and human rights - despite surveillance and house arrest, harassment and threats, even banishment".