The Writer’s Block: A Video Q&A with Teng Biao

Teng Biao is a lawyer, academic, and advocate. Over the course of his decades-long career, the Chinese activist has worked to stand against injustice and build the democratic future that he sees for his country.

In 2006 Teng Biao supported the founding of the Open Constitution Institute, an organization comprised of lawyers and scholars who argued for a legal state with broader constitutional protection in China. He was also one of the signatories of Charta 08, the manifesto that called for more democracy in China. As a lawyer, he has supported his fellow activists, and was counsel for the blind civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for his work in 2006.

Because of his work in opposition to the Chinese government, Teng has been detained and arrested several times, and has been disbarred in China.

He has been Lecturer in the China University of Political Science and Law, a visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and is currently a visiting scholar at New York University and the Institute for Advanced Study.

Teng Biao visited Alphabet City in March 2017 to share his work. He sat down with Sampsonia Way to discuss some of the cases he feels most proud of, and his own journey to activism and advocacy.