Just before dawn on December 5th, 1978, an electrician at Beijing Zoo emerged from the freezing darkness and put up a poster covered with writing on a wall near Tiananmen Square.
At the time, the Chinese capital was in ferment following Chairman Mao Zedong's death, and posters were appearing daily on what became known as Democracy Wall. The posters generally supported the new Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, in his call for four modernisations (in industry, agriculture, defence and science) to enable China to open up to the world after the convulsions of the Cultural Revolution.
The poster put up by the electrician, a former fanatical Red Guard and Maoist who had been thinking deeply about the country's crisis, called for a "fifth modernisation" - democracy.
Otherwise, Wei Jingsheng argued, they would become the victim of "swindlers" prepared to deny the people what they had come to realise was necessary. The people must be masters of their destiny, he went on. "Fascist totalitarianism" could only bring disaster.
Deng had used the democracy movement to gain power, but this was going too far. Soon afterwards he ordered the arrest of Wei, who had daringly given interviews to the foreign media. He was charged with providing foreigners with military information and committing the crime of counter-revolution. He contested all the counts but was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Thus began a long prison career for the man who became China's longest-serving dissident, and whose book, The Courage to Stand Alone, a collection of writings in prison, was published this year. In it, he describes beatings and crushing isolation in jail. Even the guards were forbidden to speak to him. His health declined and his teeth began to fall out.
But he kept up his protests, writing letters to Deng Xiaoping arguing for democracy. A friend from Democracy Wall days, Liu Qing, wrote in a preface to his book, "Never once during 14 years of imprisonment did Wei Jingsheng cower in fear or falter in his courage; never once did he place blame on others or voice regrets.
"Illness, solitary confinement, persecution by guards and other prisoners, the odious thought of `reform' and the enticing allure of a short sentence or improved treatment - all methods which had weakened imprisoned emperors or war criminals before him - had no effect on Wei.
"Yet what is more startling is that in spite of his perilous situation, Wei never abandons his sense of responsibility towards history and the Chinese people."
Human rights organisations clamoured for his release and Wei was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times, but the authorities were unmoved. With Deng Xiaoping it was personal.
Wei was eventually released on September 14th, 1993, a few months before the end of his sentence, and just nine days before the International Olympic Committee was due to vote on Beijing's bid for the 2000 Games.
Despite this gesture to the world's human rights lobby, the Olympics bid failed. Wei spent his freedom in typically outspoken fashion, talking for hours in smoke-filled rooms with friends, dissidents and journalists. Within six months he was arrested again, shortly after he wrote an article for the New York Times urging the US to increase its pressure on China over human rights, an act which the Beijing Communist authorities regarded as tantamount to treason.
Wei was tried once more in December 1995, accused of "illegal activities under the cloak of legality", mainly based on his writings about democracy and Tibet, and also of buying shares in a credit union, planning an art exhibition and collecting names of "political victims".
The clearly ill dissident replied in a long speech, interrupted for 20 minutes when he ran out of energy, that the democracy movement had committed no crimes. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to another 14 years in prison.
The world was once again stirred to voice its dismay. Wei was given numerous awards, including the Olaf Palme Award in 1955 and the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1966.
China has always maintained that Wei is a criminal, not a dissident. "Wei Jingsheng violated Chinese laws," the foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Shen Guofang, told a news briefing on October 7th, after he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the fourth consecutive year. This was the same message that President Jiang Zemin of China brought to the US.
But several things came together to bring about the circumstances for his release yesterday. Deng Xiaoping died earlier this year. President Jiang needed to repay President Clinton for his pro-China policy. And Beijing saw a chance to end the annual condemnations of its human rights record at the UN. Wei's release is precisely what some Western countries wanted to get them off the hook of human rights, which was complicating trade with the emerging Asian giant.
Asked by a reporter in Washington two weeks ago why he did not just let Wei go, President Jiang said he was not China's chief justice. But the conclusion to release him was no court decision. It was carefully calculated by the executive power, which reckoned that at this time it would best serve their interests to send China's most prominent voice of conscience into exile.