Quick Facts
Biography
Li Bifeng (born 1965 in China) is a Chinese activist and poet. He has been imprisoned since 1998.
Life and Imprisonment
The poet and campaigner for democracy, Li Bifeng, wrote a report in 1998 about a courageous sit-in of a group of textile workers on a Chinese highway. He passed the report to human rights organizations abroad. In 1989 he was arrested and sentenced for 12 years because of "economic crimes", after he had taken part in the protest on Tiananmen Square and had been on the run for half a year.
In November 2012, 48-year-old Li was sentenced to another twelve years in prison with no plausible reason or evidence and despite worldwide protests. The authorities accuse him of helping his friend Liao Yiwu, the writer and winner of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2012, when he fled to Germany.
On 4th June 2013, the international literature festival berlin held a worldwide reading for Li Bifeng.