BEIJING – A 21-year-old Chinese man who attended a proposed pro-democracy “Jasmine Revolution” protest in Beijing was sentenced to labour re-education, in the first confirmed punishment for the Middle East-inspired gatherings that were squashed by wary authorities. The man, Wei Qiang, was sentenced to 2 years in a labour re-education camp. He was a former art student who did some work at the studio of the detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei, according to two friends of Wei, who confirmed his sentence to Reuters. That connection may be one element that helps explain why authorities moved against Ai, whose detention sparked an outcry from Washington and other Western capitals critical of the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown on dissent.
