"We didn't want to exclude anybody," Shang said.
She did not plan to keep Wang from the gathering, Shang said, but she felt pressure from Hao Ping, the Peking University president's assistant.
According to Shang, Hao deemed the event a personal meeting with the Peking University president, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, and insisted that Wang's presence would be inappropriate.
"President [Chen] didn't think that it would be proper for him to meet Wang Dan," Shang said.
For the event to take place, "there was no choice in the matter," Shang said.
Shang said that when Wang came to the door, "We told him President Chen didn't want to see him."
But, she said, "had Wang Don insisted, no one would have stopped him [from going in]. We sympathize with Wang Dan."
Wang Dan said he did not press for entrance, and thought Shang "got some pressure from higher levels."
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