Chai Ling - Education and Protest

Education and Protest

Chai Ling's parents were members of the Communist Party. As a young student Chai herself joined the Central Communist Youth League, which named her a "model student" during high school for her "good health, grades and moral character," reported Paula Chin of People magazine.

Chai Ling graduated from Peking University in 1987 and then undertook graduate study in Beijing Normal University concentrating on child psychology.

She participated in demonstrations asking the government for democratic reforms in 1987, even though she realized that speaking out could have enormous implications. Chai Ling emerged as one of the student leaders on the Square at a later stage of the movement. Chai Ling along with other student leaders such as Wuerkaixi and Wang Dan "led six weeks of protests." The movement was the biggest threat ever to Communist Party rule."

Chai Ling organized many of the hunger strikes during demonstrations. She was known as the "general commander" during the student protests and was then listed as one of the 21 most wanted students by the Chinese government after the military crackdown. Chai Ling is still active in discussing China and the democracy movement as she gives speeches talking about her experience. According to the Associated Press on June 2, 2009, the eve of the 20th Anniversary of the Chinese government's crack down, Chai Ling issued a statement calling for the release of political prisoners in China.