He was a vocal advocate for the Uighur people and was jailed in 1994 and tortured by the Chinese. He made his way to Canada as a refugee in 2001 and became a citizen in 2005. In 2006, he was arrested in Uzbekistan and extradited to China where he has been jailed since. He hasn't been allowed visitors since 2011. China doesn't recognize his Canadian citizenship and has ignored repeated attempts by the Canadian government to get him out. This case is hardly known about in Canada. I guess he isn't ethnically important enough for the mainstream media to make an issue out of like the two Michael's were.