Wang Lixiong (May 2, 1953-), writer. Born in Changchun, Jilin Province, Wang's mother was a screenwriter at the Changchun Film Studio, and his father was the deputy director of the Changchun First Automobile factory before the Cultural Revolution, a superior of Jiang Zemin, who served as president of China from 1993 to 2003. During the Cultural Revolution, Wang's father was labeled a capitalist and a Soviet agent and died in detention.
In 1973, as a Worker-Peasant-Soldier student, Wang went to study at the Jilin University of Technology, and after graduation, he was assigned to work at the Changchun First Automobile factory. In 1980, Wang left to work with a film crew and began writing novels and screenplays. In 1994, he also participated in the founding of Friends of Nature, the first non-government environmental organization in mainland China.
Wang has written and published many books on Chinese politics, including political allegories Yellow Peril and Reincarnation, non-fiction, such as Sky Burial: The Fate of Tibet and My West China, Your East Turkestan on Xinjiang, as well as books on China’s political system Dissolving Power: A Successive Multi-Level Electoral System and Bottom-up Democracy.
Because of his research, writing, and advocacy activities, Wang was arrested in 1999 on suspicion of leaking state secrets and released after 42 days, and was removed from the Friends of Nature as a board member in 2003 due to government pressure.
Wang is married to the Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser.
During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2022, Wang lived in Shanghai.
