[citation needed] Two years later, Xue went to Urad Front Banner to work as a Sent-down youth in the Down to the Countryside Movement.
[citation needed] In 1976, Xue worked at Wenwu Publisher as an editor, and started to learn English from Xiao Qian, Shen Congwen and Li Jianwu.
[6] In 1978, Xue was accepted to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, he entered UC Berkeley in 1980, and he made the acquaintance of Masayoshi Son, Lu Hongliang [zh], and Stan Lai.
In August 2013, Xue attended a meeting which was convened by Lu Wei, the Chairman of the State Council Information Office.
[14] In his public apology, he explained that he often "did not verify the facts very thoroughly," "did not give constructive advice or opinion," and "focused simply on spreading the message" in his Weibo posts that he said were "full of emotion.