Research status: Media baseline completed. Primary-source verification and durable archive-copy work remain ongoing.
Liu Binyan was a prominent Chinese investigative journalist, writer, and public intellectual known for reporting on corruption and abuses of power. He was repeatedly subjected to political campaigns, was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in 1987 during the anti-bourgeois-liberalization campaign, and moved to the United States in 1988, where he continued writing and commenting on China. Source-specific descriptions of his publication and organizational roles are retained with their dates rather than treated as timeless titles.
Selected source timeline
- 1987 — Washington Post contemporaneous reporting on his expulsion.
- 1991 — Journal of Democracy authored essay.
- 2005 — Radio Free Asia Mandarin obituary and retrospective coverage.
- 2005 — Qianshao article preserved by Beijing Spring; outlet and host are recorded as separate provenance layers.
- 2005 — Beijing Spring editorial memorial.
Research links and open fields
Related research includes his People’s Daily and investigative-journalism history, Independent Chinese PEN, and Beijing Spring publication networks where source-specific. Open fields include Princeton C1116 originals, 1987–1989 Chinese and Hong Kong contemporaneous press, durable source copies, and exact dated publication or organizational roles.
Evidence note: Liu-authored essays are primary evidence for his own views, not independent corroboration. Provenance distinctions between original outlets and later archive hosts are preserved.
Free China 