Victim of McCarthy era paranoia and father of Chinese rocketry and spaceflight. Tsien was one of America's leading rocket scientist and a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A Caltech professor and a US Army colonel, he was accused by the FBI of being a spy in 1950 and his security clearance revoked the same day. The charges were never proven but he was under virtual house arrest for the next years until he was deported to China. Soon after, the PRC government put him in charge of its missile program, eventually leading to the building of Chinese intercontinental ballistic missiles, satellite launching capabilities, and even the Chinese manned space flight program. We may never know whether Tsien was a spy or a Communist while he was still in the US.  His actions both before and after his return to China could be easily interpreted to either way. However, as in the case of Wen Ho Lee fifty years later, Tsien did not benefit from the presumption of innocence accorded by US laws. Had Tsien received a different treatment, the balance of military power could have been quite different today.

Iris Chang wrote the definitive biography of Tsien in her book Thread of the Silkworm.

Human rights activist. In 1960 he was arrested and spent 19 years in the PRC's system of forced labor camps, the Laogai. After regaining his freedom, he moved to the US and published his experience. On a return trip to China, he was arrested and charged with stealing state secrets. Under international pressure, he was sentenced but then deported. Wu exposed and documented the existence of prison labor and trading of human organs of executed prisoners. Wu established the Laogai Research Foundation to publicize the Laogai system.

He's written several books, including:

• Troublemaker
• Bitter Winds
• Laogai: The Chinese Gulag