In 1957, during Communist leader Mao Zedong's Anti-Rightist Campaign, he was labelled a "rightist" and spent the next 23 years in labour camps.
[1][2] After he was politically rehabilitated in 1980, he made a living as a journalist, and published books and memoirs of other people persecuted by Mao.
[1] On 14 September 2014, Tie Liu was detained by Beijing police on charges of "provoking trouble".
According to his wife Ren Hengfang, his detention was likely because he had recently published an essay criticizing Liu Yunshan, a powerful CPC Politburo Standing Committee member and China's propaganda chief.
[1] He publicly accused Liu of corruption and urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to dismiss him.