DEDHAM - A famous Chinese dissident and long-time political prisoner will stand amidst the throngs of local people cheering on runners at this year's James Joyce Ramble.

Organizers of the road race have announced that Xu Wenli will be this year's honorary grand marshal. Each year, race organizers circulate a petition in support of a political prisoner and a few years ago, they petitioned for Xu's release.

"I am honored to accept your invitation," Wenli wrote in a letter to race organizers.

Wenli is a veteran pro-democracy campaigner in Beijing and was behind the Democracy Wall movement in China in the 1970s. He has spent 16 of the last 21 years in Chinese prisons on charges of "organizing a counter-revolutionary clique" and "counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation," according to reports by Amnesty International. He was paroled in 1993.

Most recently, Wenli was tried in December 1998 for "secretly planning the founding of the so-called Beijing and Tianjin regional Party Committee of the China Democracy Party, with the purpose of subverting state power."

His trial lasted just more three hours and he was represented by a state-appointed lawyer. He spent four years in prison and was released in December after falling very ill in prison.

He is now living in exile with his family. Wenli is a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University in Providence.

Ed Morneau, a Dedham High School teacher who helps organize the race, said Wenli will add to the race's human rights focus.

"This is one of the biggest dissidents the world has seen in the past 50 years. This is huge," he said.

As honorary grand marshal, Wenli will preside over the beginning of the race and will participate in the post-race festivities, which include speeches by whomever wins the human rights scholarship and a representative from Amnesty International.

"(Xu) doesn't speak much English, but I hope, through a translator, he'll say a few words," Morneau said. "He's a very smart man. I'm sure he'll have something to say."

Wenli's appearance will also draw the attention of some national and international media outlets, said race director Martin Hanley.

The 20th annual James Joyce Ramble will be run April 27, at 11 a.m. beginning at the Endicott Estate on East Street. The event is rain or shine. For more information visit www.ramble.org.

Reporter Sarah MacDonald can be reached at 781-433-8338 or at sarah.macdonald@cnc.com.