More news out of China……..

BEIJING (AP) - A factory worker has been released after serving 17 years in jail for setting fire to a military vehicle during the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, he said Thursday.

Zhang Maosheng was 21 in 1989 when he was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on charges of counterrevolutionary arson. His sentence was commuted to life in prison and then reduced several times for good behavior.

Reached at his mother’s Beijing home, Zhang, now 38, confirmed that he was released on Sept. 13 after 17 years and three months in jail. He declined to speak further, saying that the conditions of his parole forbid him from talking to the media.

Thousands of people were rounded up by authorities after the Chinese military crushed the seven-week, university student-led protest movement on June 4, 1989, killing hundreds.

Read more at The Guardian