A former Chinese labor camp prisoner will not be able to speak about human rights in China tonight because he was denied a visa.

Xiqia Fan, a retired automobile engineer, who spent 24 years in a Chinese labor camp near Tibet was supposed to be the keynote speaker at today’s public policy forum.

Yung Ping Chen, a political science professor who helped organize the two-day forum, said he was unsure why Fan was denied a visa. An attempt by The Daily Eastern News to contact the American Consulate in Shanghai, China and inquire why Fan was denied a visa proved unsuccessful.

In Fan’s place, Consul Shishun Shen, chief of the press section of the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago, will be the featured speaker. He will be joined by a four-man panel composed of three current Eastern professors and one retired Eastern professor.

David Carwell, political science professor; David Smith, history professor; and Ryan Hendrickson, political science professor, will serve on the panel along with Bob Barford, a retired philosophy professor.

This afternoon’s presentation is the second of a two-day forum on public policy issues in China, the world’s most populous nation. Col. Xianming Kong, ministry of public safety, China’s national police force, was Monday’s keynote speaker.

Today’s forum will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Charleston/Mattoon Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.