COEUR d'ALENE - A human rights activist and former Chinese political prisoner headlined the 15th annual Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations' Human Rights Banquet Monday.

Dr. Jianli Yang, president of Initiatives forChina, and this year's keynote speaker, spoke about the struggles he experienced fighting for democracy in The People's Republic of China.

Born in Shandong Province in northern China, he witnessed the massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square as a University of California student.

Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Yang obtained a Ph.D. degree in the field of mathematics from Berkley, and a Ph.D. in political economics from Harvard. He has taught and served as a Fellow at several American universities.

In 2002, after completing his Doctorate at Harvard, he returned to China to help the labor movement with non-violent struggle strategies. He was arrested and served five years as a political prisoner. Following an international outcry for his release, including a United Nations resolution and a unanimous vote of both houses of the United States Congress, Dr. Yang was freed in April of 2007.

Around 320 people attended the event at the Best Western Coeur d'Alene Inn.

Yang later co-chaired the Committee on Internet Freedom at the Geneva Human Rights and Democracy Summit. In March 2011, he spoke at the United Nations' Human Rights Council, directly questioning the delegates from the Peoples Republic of China. Then in December he joined H. H. Dalai Lama and four other delegates, to attend Forum Democracy and Human Rights in Asia, hosted by former Czech president, Vaclav Havel.

Yang has received numerous honors and awards from various international organizations.