... was born in 1953, in 1979 he became a leading activist of the Democracy Wall Movement in Tianjin. He was a leading editor of the journals "Bohai Shores" ("Bohai zhi Bin") and "Sketches and Notes" ("Bitan"). Because of his political activities he was arrested four times and sent to labor re-education. In 2008 he went into exile to the United States. He now lives near San Francisco, California.   

For many years Lü Honglai has been in conflict with Xu Wenli who accuses him of improper behavior, and there are also differences on political strategies. The conflict is dating back to the time when they were both still in China, and activists from various parts of the country founded the "Democratic Party of China".