Wang Dan was a Peking University history student and one of the most visible student organizers during the 1989 democracy movement. Contemporaneous reporting and official records place him in the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation leadership, in public dialogue and protest activity, and at No. 1 on the June 1989 wanted list.
He was arrested in 1989, sentenced in 1991 to four years, released early in 1993, detained again in 1995 and sentenced in 1996 to eleven years on subversion-related charges. He was released on medical parole and sent to the United States in 1998. Later work has included scholarship, public commentary and overseas democracy advocacy.
The P1 archive contains more than sixty controlled media records spanning 1989 to the present. Where participant accounts differ on late-May command authority or specific movement decisions, this profile keeps those questions source-bounded rather than converting later recollections into settled fact.
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Corrections and primary-source contributions are welcome.