ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Futian incident

The Futian Incident was an event that happened in China a long time ago. It happened in 1979, which is before you were born!

There was a man named Wei Jingsheng who was very brave and stood up for what he believed in. He wrote something called the "Democracy Wall" which talked about how people should have more say in how their country is run. This made a lot of people angry because in China at that time, the government had all the power and didn't like it when people spoke out against them.

One day, Wei Jingsheng put up a big poster on the Democracy Wall that said "The Fifth Modernization is Democracy" which means that they wanted democracy to be one of the important things that the government worked on. This made the government VERY mad, and they arrested Wei Jingsheng and put him in jail.

A lot of other people were upset too because they thought that Wei Jingsheng was being treated unfairly. They held a big protest in the city of Shenzhen, which is where the Futian district is located. The protest was very peaceful and the people just wanted to show their support for Wei Jingsheng and the idea of democracy.

However, the government did not like the protest and sent in a lot of police officers and soldiers to stop it. They used force to break up the protest and many people were arrested. This event, the Futian Incident, was a sad time for many people who wanted to stand up for what they believed in.

In the end, Wei Jingsheng was in prison for many years but he never gave up on his belief in democracy. He became a symbol of hope for many people in China and around the world. Today, China is a different place compared to when the Futian Incident happened, and people have more freedom to express their opinions, but it's important to remember the brave people who fought for these rights.
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