Zhao Changqing
Zhao Changqing (born April 1969) is a history teacher and political activist in the People’s Republic of China.
Biography
Zhao Changqing hails from a small village in Shaanxi province, China. In September 1988, he entered the History department of the Shaanxi teacher training college.
Student activism
In April 1989, he and a group of classmates started a students’ self-governing committee.
Arrested in June 1989 for taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, he was imprisoned in Qincheng prison in Beijing for more than half a year, but was then discharged and sent back to his old school in Shaanxi, where he graduated in 1992.
From his graduation until 1998, Zhao worked as a teacher at the Shaanxi Hanzhong Nuclear Industry Factory 813.
Petition to the 15th National Congress
In August 1997, he petitioned the 15th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to introduce political reforms with his essay "Reform the political system and take the path to democratisation". In defense of fellow workers against corruption and substandard working conditions, he tried to stand for election as a factory representative to the National People Congress, on a platform critical of the All China Federation of Trade Unions. He was detained on 25 March 1998, and was tried on 6 September 1998 and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.