Begging to Differ

In the entrance to my parents' home in Manhattan is an old poster of the Big Apple that reads: "You have to be a little crazy to live in New York, but you'd be nuts to live anywhere else." The first time veteran Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng came to visit, he asked me to translate the words for him. Chuckling heartily, he pointed to his nose. "Just like me," he said, suddenly somber. "You have to be a little crazy to stand up to the Chinese government, but it's nuts not to." Exiled after 18 brutal years in prison, Wei was...