Wife, son of prominent Chinese dissident arrive in US

(AP) — The pregnant wife and 4-year-old son of a prominent Chinese dissident have sought refuge in the San Francisco Bay Area after leaving Thailand, where she said she no longer felt safe.

The 47-year-old Zhao has been a leading defender of human rights and democracy in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Students Movement.

Zhao was part of a loose network of grassroots activists known as the New Citizens Movement who in 2013 were targeted by Chinese authorities as part of a broad crackdown on dissent.

The movement was known in China's beleaguered community of activists for staging small protests to call for education equality or the disclosure of public officials' assets to curb corruption.

Chinese authorities found Zhao and three other activists guilty of "gathering a crowd to disturb order in a public" for planning street protests and sentenced Zhao in April 2014 to two years and six months' imprisonment.