Beijing: Apparently bowing to intense international pressure, China has released a 72-year-old surgeon who angered the mandarins again by condemning the 1989 pro-democracy protests, media reports said in Beijing today (Jul 21, 2004).

Jiang Yanyong has returned home late Monday night (Jul 19, 2004) after about 45 days in military custody, where he was subjected to political indoctrination sessions and investigated for possible criminal activity, the reports said, citing family sources.

His release appears to be a rare victory for an individual who directly confronted the Communist Party of China (CPC), which has ruled the nation with iron fist since 1949, analysts say.

China's official media has remained silent on the whole episode and the Chinese Foreign Ministry routinely maintained that it was not aware of Jiang's case.

Jiang, a member of the Communist Party, works in the elite 301 People's Liberation Army (PLA) Hospital in Beijing, is expected to be kept under surveillance and to be prohibited from making contact with outsiders, especially the international media, which widely covered his detention.

Jiang became a popular national and international figure last year amid the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). At that time, Jiang, in a letter to top Chinese leaders, told them that numerous Beijing hospitals had far more SARS patients than health authorities were admitting publicly at the time.