Ningbo, China-The sight of a set of plastic wedding-cake figurines sets William Xin off into hard-headed negotiations. "Look at the detailed work," he says, picking up a detachable head the size of a marble and holding it under the chin of an impassive Chinese manufacturer. "The nose is a little bit bigger for the Jews, smaller for the Asians." Then, he moves in for the kill: "How quickly can you make a mold and prototype?" With his nonstop patter and eye for the untapped niche market-in this case, race-specific wedding-cake ornaments for the U.S.-the 34-year-old Mr. Xin could be any Chinese-American businessman in China trying to clinch a deal. But he isn't, Unknown to the rival plastics man an enemy of the state: a student protester who helped lead the 1989 democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square before retreating from rifle-toting soldiers into a dissident's exile in the U.S.
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