Zeng Ning, 28, a corporate legal representative in Guizhou province, was sentenced in early or mid-1996 to two years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights for "actively participating in a counterrevolutionary group" for his involvement in the "Open Letter to the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee" initiated by Chen Xi (see above). Zeng Ning was tried and sentenced together with associates Chen Xi, Huang Yanming, Liao Shuangyuan and Lu Yongxiang. The verdict states that all of them "aimed to subvert proletarian dictatorship and the socialist system" and "schemed to subvert the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party." Zeng was apprehended on May 24, 1995. Public security officers told his family that he was being held under Shelter and Investigation. The date of his formal arrest is not known. Zeng spent four years in prison after writing the manifesto, "An Outline for Democratic Reform in China," in 1991. (Sources: Human Rights in China - New York)