Liu Wenzhong (1947-) is a native of Shanghai and a writer known for helping his brother critique Mao’s rule.
In 1957, Liu's brother, Liu Wenhui, was labeled a Rightist for criticizing his factory manager during the Hundred Flowers Movement. After the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, Liu Wenhui wrote a 10,000-word essay, "Sixteen Articles on Refuting the Cultural Revolution," critiquing the Cultural Revolution and Mao’s power. Liu Wenhui was arrested and executed by firing squad for committing anti-revolutionary crimes. He is believed to be the first regime critic to be publicly executed during the Cultural Revolution.
Liu Wenzhong was arrested for helping his brother to transcribe 14 copies of the article, and was held in a detention center for two years and four months. He was later sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for remarks, such as wanting to avenge his brother's death, as well as for participating in a book club in the detention center. After his release, he was sent to a labor farm to work until February 1979, when he was rehabilitated and returned to Shanghai.
Liu became a businessman in the1980s. According to journalist Jiang Xue’s article, In June 2003, Liu Wenzhong read The Gulag Archipelago for the first time. When he read the book's opening line, “I dedicate this to all those who did not live to tell it. And may they please forgive me for not having seen it all nor remembered it all, for not having divined all of it”, Liu decided to quit business and devote to answering his brother's question: what could socialism look like in other parts of the world? To this end, he traveled to 108 countries, of which more than 40 were countries that practiced or had practiced socialism, including North Korea, Cuba, and countries after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. Through examining the local political systems, he wrote Xin Hai Guo Tu Zhi (The New Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms), borrowing the name of a 19th-century Chinese gazetteer, as well as a travelogue Reflect, China. Liu also wrote The First Man Against the Cultural Revolution and His Co-Conspirators, specifically about his brother Liu Wenhui.
