刘宾雁 (Liu Binyan) was a Chinese author and journalist, as well as a political dissident. He was labeled a rightist in 1957 for his writing, and even after rehabilitation, he continued to critique the government throughout the ensuring decades. He is perhaps best known for People or Monsters, his 1979 book on Wang Shouxin, a government official who was involved in a corruption scandal. He was the president of the Chinese PEN Center and served numerous stints in labor camps. He was known as “China’s conscience” (中国的良心).
Why it is blocked: Liu’s searing reportage and commentary earned him a reputation as a government watchdog. He was finally expelled from the Chinese Communist Party after attempting to organize student demonstrations in December 1986. He died in 2005—living in exile in the U.S. [Status - 11/15/11: blocked; 2/5/12: blocked]
