This archive collects media and organizational reporting on the case of Chen Jun (陈军), a Chinese human-rights and democracy activist who organized the February 1989 amnesty campaign and directed the group Amnesty 89, and who was expelled from China in April 1989 after his involvement.
Person profile: Chen Jun / 陈军 — Amnesty 89 Organizer
Case timeline
- January 6, 1989 — astrophysicist Fang Lizhi writes an open letter to Deng Xiaoping calling for the release of political prisoners, including Wei Jingsheng, on humanitarian grounds to mark the PRC’s 40th anniversary year.
- February 13, 1989 — 33 prominent intellectuals, writers, poets and artists publish an open letter supporting Fang Lizhi’s call.
- February 19, 1989 — Chen Jun, described in reporting as a Beijing Spring activist and then 31, collects another 30 signatures among artists and democracy-movement activists, issues an open appeal for further signatures in China and abroad, and forms the Amnesty 89 working group. He is identified in contemporary reporting as chief organizer of the amnesty petition and director of Amnesty 89.
- February 24, 1989 — The Washington Post reports Chen’s announcement of Amnesty 89 and its effort to gather information about imprisoned participants in the Democracy Wall movement; UPI separately reports the intellectuals’ amnesty appeal and Chen’s role in distributing it to foreign reporters.
- Mid-March 1989 — Chen Jun tells In These Times he gave the Amnesty ’89 report on specific political-prisoner cases to Hong Kong delegates of the National People’s Congress, and says he had planned to submit “A Report on Amnesty ’89” to the scheduled April NPC meeting. Scholar Andrew Nathan’s account of 1989 notes Chen Jun had links with the publication China Spring.
- April 1, 1989 — Chen returns to Shanghai and is arrested at the train station by the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, which was holding his passport. He is interrogated for 24 hours, charged with nothing, and put on a plane to Hong Kong.
- April 7, 1989 — UPI reports that the Chinese dissident left the country following detention; The Washington Post (April 8) reports China “apparently expels” him. The May 1989 issue of Index on Censorship records his expulsion to Hong Kong on 7 April for “inciting public opinion, exerting pressure on the government and interfering in the administration of justice”.
- May 1989 — In These Times (Vol. 13, No. 24, May 10–16) publishes an interview with Chen Jun in Queens, New York, reporting he is Shanghai-born, owned a bar and café in Beijing called “JJ’s” that served as a gathering spot for artists and intellectuals, is married to a British woman, and is setting up an information office to maintain contact with student groups in China and human-rights activists in Hong Kong.
Source links
- The Washington Post, “Prison rights group is formed in China” (1989-02-24)
- UPI, “Chinese intellectuals call for prisoner amnesty” (1989-02-16)
- UPI, “Chinese dissident leaves country following detention” (1989-04-07)
- The Washington Post, “China apparently expels political dissident” (1989-04-08)
- In These Times, Vol. 13 No. 24 (May 10–16, 1989), “An inside view of China’s unrest”
- Index on Censorship 5/89, news notes
- Andrew J. Nathan, “Chinese Democracy in 1989: Continuity and Change”
- Fourth International, “Upheaval in China!”
Conflicts and caveats
Departure status conflict: Chinese authorities said Chen requested permission to leave; UPI and The Washington Post described an apparent expulsion or forced departure; Chen Jun himself told In These Times that police put him on a plane for Hong Kong without saying they were expelling him, only that they were “helping” him out of the country. All three accounts are preserved here.
Chinese Alliance for Democracy membership: Chinese state reporting alleged membership; contemporary reporting recorded Chen’s denial while acknowledging he had written for a related dissident publication.
No claim is made here about Chen Jun’s life or whereabouts after May 1989.