Wang was born in 1969. He was a politically active student at the
Peking University department of history, organizing "Democracy Salons" at his school. When he participated in the student movement that led to the 1989 protests, he joined the movement's organizing body as the representative from Peking University. As a result, after the Tiananmen Square protests, he immediately became the "most wanted" on the list of 21 fugitives issued. Wang went into hiding but was arrested on 2 July the same year, and sentenced to four years imprisonment in 1991. After being released on parole in 1993, he continued to write publicly (to publications outside of mainland China) and was re-arrested in 1995 for conspiring to overthrow the
Chinese Communist Party and was sentenced in 1996 to 11 years. However he was released early and exiled to the United States of America. Wang resumed his university studies, starting school at
Harvard University in 1998 and completing his master's in East Asian history in 2001 and a
Ph.D. in 2008. He also performed research on the development of democracy in Taiwan at
Oxford University in 2009. He is currently the chairman of the
Chinese Constitutional Reform Association. Wang was interviewed and appeared in the
documentary The Beijing Crackdown and the movie
Moving the Mountain, about the Tiananmen Square protests. He also featured prominently in
Shen Tong's book
Almost a Revolution. He was banned from setting foot on
mainland China with his passport expiring in 2003. He attempted to visit Hong Kong in 2004, but was rejected. At that time, he was invited by the
Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China to talk about politics ahead of the 15th anniversary of the June 4 crackdown.
Arrest and incarceration Following the
People's Liberation Army's crackdown on the protests, Wang was placed on a
list of the 21 most wanted student leaders of the protests. Imprisoned on 2 July 1989, Wang spent nearly two years in custody before his trial in 1991. Wang was charged with spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison; a relatively mild sentence compared to other political prisoners in China at this time. This short sentence was thought to be caused by two things: the government was unsure of what to do with so many students, and felt pressure due to their high-profile nature. While incarcerated, Wang spent two years at
Qincheng Prison, known for its high number of political prisoners. Despite the usual cramped conditions, because of his high-profile case, Wang was given his own cell. Wang was released in 1993, just months before the end of his sentence. Wang himself has noted this was most likely related to
China's first bid for the
Olympic Games since he and 19 other political prisoners were released only a month before the
International Olympic Committee was to visit. Almost immediately after his release in 1993 Wang began to promote democracy in China and contacted exiled political activists in the
United States. He was arrested for a second time in May 1995, two months after an interview with the US based anti-communist periodical
Beijing Spring. In this interview he states: "We should clear a new path and devote ourselves to building a civil society by focusing our efforts on social movements, not political movements, self-consciously maintaining a distance from political power and political organs." Wang was held in custody for 17 months before receiving the charge of "plotting to overthrow the government", and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Activism and education work Wang has been productive in the years after his release from China. Wang has been able to publish articles such as "Rebuild China with an Olympic Amnesty" and "20 years after Tiananmen" as well as give public interviews. His exile in the United States allowed him to attend Harvard University to finish his education, obtaining a history degree. He also became chairman of the
Chinese Constitutional Reform Association. Wang taught PRC history at
National Tsing Hua University in
Hsinchu,
Taiwan from 2010 to 2015. Wang is a member of the
WikiLeaks advisory board. Wang sits on the board of trustees for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation (CFHK).
Payments from Chen Shui-bian In April 2011, news media reported that Wang testified in court that he had received two grants from the
Chen Shui-bian administration totaling US$400,000 and that the source of the money was not clear. Wang responded that the reports of him having received US$400,000 are false. Later, Wang said, "The report [of the Central News Agency] is misleading. What we accepted is the Republic of China's government's funding of the overseas Democracy Movement. Well, if it is said to be Chen Shui-bian's personal support, then I think this is not in line with the facts. [...] What he represents is not himself, but the government of the Republic of China." In April 2022, Chen disclosed 21 cases of "Guowu Jiyao Fei", including two payments to Wang, totaling 6.6 million NTD. Chen disclosed that Wang was paid US$200,000 after meeting him. Wang came to the Presidential Palace to talk to Chen. Chen also allocated US$200,000 to be paid in two years to Wang. However, Chen said that U.S. law stipulates that it is not allowed to accept foreign government funding. In order to help Wang, the government used many people. Wang admitted this in a secret court, although receiving money from a foreign government is illegal in the United States.
Donation for brain tumor In 2014, Wang wrote on Facebook that he suspected having a brain tumor and requested the Taiwanese government to let him go to Taiwan. Dissidents
Tang Baiqiao and
Feng Congde accused him of deceiving the public.
Sexual misconduct allegations In 2023, a Taiwanese man named Lee Yuan-chun said in a social media post that Wang had kissed and attempted to rape him in a hotel room in
Flushing,
New York in 2014, when Lee was 19 years old. He said he persuaded Wang to stop, but that Wang subjected him to lewd remarks in the following days. Lee subsequently filed a criminal complaint towards Wang alleging attempted rape, while Wang said Lee's allegations were unfounded. Nearly a year after the 2024 incident, Lee Yuan-chun received a 'Non-Prosecution Notice' from the Taipei District Prosecutors Office and publicly shared partial screenshots of the notice on Facebook. The notice indicated that, based on Lee's testimony, chat records of his confiding in others, and personal trauma-related posts he had made on Facebook around the anniversary of the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre each year, the prosecutors concluded that Wang's act of forceful kissing was established and constituted a suspected offense of forcible indecency. However, the prosecutors determined they lacked jurisdiction over non-Republic of China nationals accused of crimes committed abroad and therefore decided not to prosecute. Furthermore, the notice ruled that Wang's testimony and his witnesses' statements could not be admitted as evidence in his favor. In response, Wang issued a statement upon receiving the notice, claiming that he had received a 'Non-Prosecution Notice' signed by the prosecutor citing 'insufficient evidence' among other reasons. The National Tsing Hua University where Wang worked until 2017 decided to launch an investigation in response, contacted his students from the past 13 years, and cancelled his lectures in the upcoming semester in the university's school of sociology out of concern for his students. An investigative report by
Deutsche Welle published in July 2023 mentioned further accusations against Wang regarding assault and sexual harassment. On 24 September 2024, Wang's visit to the College of William and Mary sparked controversy when he gave a talk, titled "Understanding Today’s China."
Zoom blocking An event hosted by Wang on
Zoom in the
United States was interrupted on 3 June 2020, with his Zoom account being blocked. This led to US lawmakers asking
Zoom Video Communications to clarify their relationship with China regarding freedom of speech. Zoom apologized, explaining that the company was puzzled with requests from China regarding blocking, but they would not repeat the practice of blocking outside of China. == Political positions ==