Death of Li Wangyang

Pro-democracy Macanese legislators Chan Wai Chi, Au Kam San and Ng Kuok Cheong wrote to PRC Premier Wen Jiabao and other deputies to the Chinese People’s National Congress demanding an investigation of Li's mysterious "suicide". They protested the Shaoyang public security office ignoring escalating calls for a transparent investigation Li's death, and accused them of "destroying the evidence" by cremating Li’s body.

Following the public outcry, Li Gang, deputy director of the Hong Kong–central government liaison office in said that Hunan Public Security Bureau ordered a criminal investigation into the death. Li said: "We have noted the concern expressed by the Hong Kong community and media on [Li Wangyang's death]. We have reflected their concerns to the relevant departments in the central government." The South China Morning Post noted that announcement about the forensic and criminal investigation by experts from outside Hunan province came through the semi-official Hong Kong China News Agency rather than Xinhua, saying it indicated that the announcement was targeted at Hong Kong, designed to calm public anger. Pundits say the uproar in Hong Kong has put pressure on mainland authorities to order a criminal investigation so as not to threaten the legacy of outgoing president Hu Jintao and overshadow his impending visit for the 15th anniversary celebrations of the handover of Hong Kong. Political commentator Johnny Lau said that if Hu had not been planning on coming to Hong Kong, "the case could drag on or may be forgotten".

Li was found dead on 6 June 2012, one year after his latest release from prison, in the Daxiang Hospital where he was being treated for heart disease and diabetes. Li was reportedly found on his feet with a strip of cloth tied around his neck and connected to a window bar. Li's next of kin, his sister Li Wangling and her husband Zhao Baozhu, rushed to the hospital shortly after they were telephoned at 6 am. His brother-in-law said that the body was "on its feet next to his bed, with a white strip of cloth tied tightly around its neck and connected to a window bar above". The authorities said to relatives that there would be an autopsy. Although the latter were denied permission to take photographs, some stills and one video made it onto the internet. Later, i-Cable television in Hong Kong reported that officials had been attempting to persuade Li's family members to cremate his body immediately.

During his spells in prison, Li was a frequent inmate in solitary confinement. In 2001, Li began a hunger strike as part of a petition to authorities to repay his health care costs, and was given an additional ten-year sentence for "inciting subversion". Whilst attempting to force feed Li during his hunger strike, guards knocked out Li's front teeth. He finally gained freedom in May 2011, when he checked into Daxiang District Hospital to treat his medical conditions. His sister, who lived 7 km away from the hospital, visited him twice a day with his meals

As a result of his actions, Li was jailed on 9 June for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement". He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment, but his sentence was increased to thirteen years when he appealed to the court. He was also sentenced to hard labour. As his health deteriorated, he was granted medical parole in June 1996, but the authorities cancelled his release after Deng Xiaoping died in 1997, fearing calls for the other responsible officials to be held accounted for the 4 June Massacre. In June 2000 Li was released again for reasons of poor health. Human Rights in China (HRIC) alleged that Li was tortured while in custody, resulting in his losing both his sight and hearing. Li himself said in his last interview that the only explanation for his becoming blind was through nerve damage caused by being repeatedly beaten about the head.

A worker in a glass factory, Li Wangyang set up a labour union under inspiration of the Democracy Wall in 1983. In 1989, China saw mass pro-democracy protests throughout the country, with the largest protests in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. After hundreds died when the People's Liberation Army suppressed the protests on 4 June, Li pasted a poster on a Shaoyang traffic sign urging a general strike in support of the protests. Two days later, Li organized a memorial for the victims.

Li Wangyang (Chinese: 李旺阳 , 12 November 1950 – 6 June 2012) was a Chinese dissident labor rights activist, member of the Workers Autonomous Federation and chairman of the Shaoyang WAF branch. Following his role in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he served twenty-one years in prison on charges of counterrevolutionary propaganda, incitement, and subversion. Of all Chinese pro-democracy activists from 1989, Li has spent the longest time in prison. On 6 June 2012, one year after his release from prison, and a few days after a television interview in which he continued to call for vindication of the Tiananmen Square protests, Li was found hanged in a hospital room. Shaoyang city authorities initially claimed suicide was the cause of death, but it was revised to 'accidental death' after the autopsy.

Following a protest march attended by up to 25,000 people, Pan Democrats and senior establishment figures in Hong Kong publicly commented on the suspicious nature of the death, and said they had escalated the demands of citizens to politicians or "relevant departments" at national level for an independent investigation. The uproar in Hong Kong is said by commentators have put pressure on mainland authorities to order a criminal investigation so as not to overshadow the impending visit of president Hu Jintao for the 15th anniversary celebrations of the handover of Hong Kong.

Li remained vocal in demanding vindication of the Tiananmen protesters up until his death: in an interview with i-CABLE broadcast four days before, he said "the souls of the martyrs deserve to finally find some peace". He advocated a multi-party democracy for his country, and said he did not regret his fight for a better China, "even had [he] been beheaded" In another interview, broadcast on French radio the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, he appealed to his compatriots "to observe 6-4". Amnesty International designated him a prisoner of conscience. Apple Daily reported that he had no minders before the interviews. After his interviews were broadcast, Li was kept under around the clock surveillance by a team of 10 police officers. An account that was opened to receive donations from supporters from China and abroad to pay his medical fees was inexplicably blocked; he was also severely impeded from going to Beijing to see a specialist physician.