Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng pleaded for unity among supporters of China's overseas democracy movement in a half-hour long speech at the Kennedy School of Government's ARCO Forum on Wednesday afternoon.

His repeated calls for urgent action and his sense of immediacy contrasted with the reserved remarks of fellow dissident Wang Dan, 29, who answered questions last Thursday at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.

"When I was young, I didn't really understand all the conditions of Chinese people," Wei, 58, said through a translator.

"Once I saw the oppression and lack of freedom then I determined as my own goal to obtain freedom and democracy for ordinary people so that all could enjoy the same kind of freedom," Wei said, his voice rising with each syllable.

Wei railed against complacency and sought to infuse the audience with a renewed sense of confidence in the struggle for democracy in China.

"We who live in the West have lost a sense of urgency and crisis that ordinary Chinese citizens have," he said.

"We Chinese people do not have enough confidence in democracy in the future of our nation," he added.

After 16 years of imprisonment, Wei was finally released in November after intense but low-profile lobbying by the Clinton administration.

Wei arrived in Detroit less than a month after Chinese President Jiang Zemin paid a highly publicized state visit to the United States.

Wei warned against depending on foreign governments to put pressure on China for democracy and human rights.

"We can't rely on begging foreign governments" to foster change in China, he said.

The weakness of democratic governments, Wei said, is that politicians do not plan beyond four years and have so many competing interests.

"To my face they are very polite but when they turn their back it's a whole different story," he said.

Wei even offered to work together with Americans to obtain what he called "true democracy" if their politicians did not represent their ideas.

Asked how he felt about being criticized for his outspoken style, Wei responded, "If I can not speak up for my people in the West then I really do not have anything going for me."