(Redirected from Wuer Kaixi)'Wúěrkāixī' (; or (; / ;
17th February 1968 – ) rose to fame as an
Uyghur student leader in the
Tiananmen protests of 1989. He achieved prominence while studying at
Beijing Normal University as a
hunger striker who rebuked the
Chinese Premier,
Li Peng, on national television.
He fled to
France and then studied at
Harvard University in the
United States. Afterward he emigrated to
Taiwan, where he has started a family and continues to host radio programs. He also appears frequently on television programmes as a political commentator, who supports the idea of "One China Under Democracy" (that is, the
reunification of
mainland China and Taiwan under a democratic political system, which has been touted by the
Pan-Blue Coalition in the past). He reportedly expressed his hope of taking part in
Legislative Yuan elections as a representative of
Kuomintang, but was not nominated as one of the party's candidates.
One of the earliest student leaders to flee from China, he has earned the nickname "Wuerkailiu (吾爾開溜)", with "kailiu" meaning "to sneak off" in Chinese (as "Kaixi" means "to open hope").
Wuerkaixi enjoyed a great popularity in China. During the night of the protest, he successfully prevented a greater number of students from dying in Tiananmen Square by negotiating with the army commander, thereby preventing the situation from further escalating. The other protest leader,
Chai Ling, indirectly caused unnecessary casualties by asking her follow protesters to stay and stand against army's tanks and APCs. (Later, she left her fellow protesters behind and fled abroad.)
External links
★
Witnessing Tiananmen: Student talks fail - BBC interview