Yang Chunlin

Yang Chunlin is a human rights activist in Heilongjiang, China. He has published numerous articles on human rights and land rights. In 2007, he helped organise a petition entitled, "We want human rights, not the Olympics." The petition reportedly collected over ten thousand signatures. Yang was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power" on 24 March 2008 and sentenced to five years in prison and two years of subsequent deprivation of political rights. Another activist involved with the open letter, Yuan Xianchen, was convicted of similar charged and sentenced to four years in prison. Yang was released from prison on 6 July 2012.