Uerkesh achieved prominence while studying at Beijing Normal University as a hunger striker who rebuked Chinese Premier Li Peng on national television.

He was one of the main leaders of the pro-reform Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation and helped lead abortive negotiations with officials.

According to Eddie Cheng, at a hastily convened meeting to form the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation and elect its leader, Zhou Yongjun of the University of Political Science and Law narrowly defeated Wu'erkaixi to be its first president.

Nike shoes, lots of free time to take our girlfriends to the bar, the freedom to discuss an issue with someone and get a little respect from society".

He fled to France through Hong Kong under the aegis of Operation Yellowbird,[6] and then studied at Harvard University in the United States.

In a June 2014 interview with the New York Times, he stated that while he was 'not a nationalist', if asked to 'choose today', he would 'join the majority of Taiwanese people here for independence.

Despite recent open support for the Pan-Green Coalition, he still considers himself of Chinese nationality, noting that "China is the home of my parents.

[22] In December 2014, Wu'erkaixi announced his candidacy for the legislative seat formerly held by Lin Chia-lung, who had earlier defeated Jason Hu for the mayoralty of Taichung in the local elections.

[23] A few weeks later, Wu'erkaixi withdrew from the race, as he felt the by-election and resulting one-year term would not be enough time to accomplish his political goals.

[24] Wu'erkaixi, backed by the Constitutional Reform Fraternity Coalition, launched an unsuccessful second bid for the Legislative Yuan in July 2015.

[25][26] In 2019, Wu'erkaixi showed support for the Hong Kong protests over the Mainland extradition bill and said he saw a connection between this current struggle and that which took place in Tiananmen Square in 1989; "The central government do not want to give its people freedom.

It's an identical part [of the two events], it's the same enemy of the people that links the two demonstrations; one in Beijing 30 years ago and one in Hong Kong going on today.