Hada (activist)

Hada (Mongolian: ᠬᠠᠳᠠ, Mongolian Cyrillic: Хада; Chinese: 哈達; pinyin: Hādá, born November 29, 1955) is an ethnic Mongol activist, who has campaigned for self-determination of Southern Mongolia (the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China). He was detained for 15 years in prison in Chifeng. He was released from prison on December 10, 2010, but still detained in an detention centre in Inner Mongolia. In December 2014 he was released from detention.

Hada was born into a Mongolian family on November 29, 1955. In early 1981, while at university he joined the Inner Mongolian student movement, which was campaigning to preserve Mongolian identity in Inner Mongolia under Chinese law. Hada obtained his master's degree in philosophy in 1983, and published articles on political theory in Mongolian. He began research studies in the political theory department of Inner Mongolia Normal University in 1986. With his wife, Xinna, he opened a Mongolian studies bookstore in Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia.

In the 1980s, Xi Haiming (Mongolian: Temtselt Shobshuud), Huchuntegus, Wang Manlai, and Hada; all students at universities in Hohhot, discussed establishment of the Inner Mongolian People's Party, a political party for Mongolians in Inner Mongolia. In May 1992, Hada and other Mongol activists (including Tegexi) formed the Southern Mongolian Democratic Alliance (originally named as the Mongolian Culture Rescue Committee) and appointed Hada as chairman. In 1994 the alliance started a newspaper named the Voice of Southern Mongolia, and in 1995 they adopted a constitution outlining the Alliance’s main mission as "opposing colonization by the Han people and striving for self-determination, freedom and democracy in Southern [Inner] Mongolia." The Voice of Southern Mongolia newspaper was declared illegal in 1995 and remains banned.

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