Wang Lixiong - Arrest and Imprisonment

Arrest and Imprisonment

Wang first began to study Xinjiang in 1999. When conducting research for a book following the same suit of Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet, he was arrested for photocopying an internal publication - stamped as “secret” - of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Refusing to recant or promise collaboration in order to obtain his release, he attempted suicide in the high-security prison in Miquan . He recorded the incident in a short essay entitled Memories of Xinjiang published in 2001. In prison, he shared a cell with an Uyghur prisoner arrested in Beijing for organizing a demonstration protesting discrimination (Mokhtar), with whom he entered into a long and ongoing discussion on Xinjiang which formed the backbone of his book My West China; Your East Turkestan published in 2007. In this book, Wang concluded that Xinjiang’s issues had dangerously “Palestinized.” The XinJiang riot in July 2009 proved his fear.

Wang would be placed under house arrest whenever there were sensitive incidents or events. i.e. the outbreak of anti-Chinese protests in Tibet in March 2008.