Tag Archives: Chained Woman

WRIC Weekly Exhibition (8rd): Remembering the contributions of Zhang Zhan and giving them a voice.

Posted on by

By WRIC Zhou Mei                       12-13-2025

 

 

1)  In Support of Zhang Zhan

 

Today, we are here to speak out for Zhang Zhan, a Chinese citizen journalist who has risked her life to uphold the truth.

 

Zhang Zhan, born in 1983 in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, holds a Master’s degree in Finance, is a former lawyer, and a Christian. In 2010, she came to Shanghai as part of a talent recruitment program, where she could have lived a stable and respectable life. However, she chose to witness the darkness, focus on the vulnerable, and speak out for the persecuted. Because of this conscience, she has been repeatedly arrested, detained, and suppressed by the police. Yet, no intimidation can stop her from acting in justice and showing mercy. At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the Chinese government blocked information and prohibited independent reporting. Zhang Zhan, however, went to Wuhan alone. With a mobile phone, she documented the long lines outside hospitals, the fear and reality under the lockdown, and exposed how the Chinese government detained independent journalists and harassed patients’ families.

 

 

Photo taken by Zhang Yan on 12-13- 025, outside the Flushing Library in New York. (WRIC)

 

Photo taken by Zhou Mei on December 13, 2025, outside the Flushing Library in New York. (WRIC)

 

Qiu Yueyun has reading the stories of these heroines’ struggle. Photo by ZhangYan outside the Flushing Library, New York, 12-13- 2025. (WRIC)

 

Because she dared to speak the truth, she was arrested across provincial borders in May and sentenced to four years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” In the Shanghai Detention Center and Women’s Prison, she protested the injustice with a hunger strike, enduring torture including forced feeding, intubation, leg irons, and restraints. In court, she questioned the judge: “Don’t you think your conscience tells you it’s wrong to put me in the dock?” This was not only her cry for justice, but also a profound indictment of an era.

 

On May 13, 2024, Zhang Zhan was released from prison, but freedom did not return. She continued to be closely monitored, harassed, and followed. Just three months later, she was arrested again for traveling to Gansu to support human rights defenders. In September 2025, she was sentenced to four years in prison again on the same charge. Two four-year sentences—this is how the authorities punish those who speak the truth. But Zhang Zhan had already given her answer: She said, “Freedom is never free. The problem in this country is the system. I cannot stop because the evil has not stopped.” “If speaking out for one’s own survival is a crime, then I have no way to stop.” This is Zhang Zhan—a woman who refuses to remain silent, a citizen who values ​​truth more than life itself, a soul willing to bear the shackles for freedom but unwilling to yield.

 

Today, we stand here for her to tell the world: Zhang Zhan is not a criminal. She is one of China’s bravest witnesses. Speaking the truth is not a crime, pursuing the truth is not a crime, conscience is not a crime. We also want to tell the persecutors: You can imprison her body, but you cannot imprison her beliefs; you can judge her, but you cannot judge freedom; you can silence her for a time, but you cannot make the world forget her. The Chinese Women’s Rights Movement solemnly calls on the Chinese government: Release Zhang Zhan! Stop persecuting citizen journalists! Restore dignity to press freedom! Let speaking the truth no longer be a crime!

 

Photo taken by Zhang Yan on December 13, 2025, outside the Flushing Library in New York. (WRIC)

 

Photo taken by Zhou Mei on December 13, 2025, outside the Flushing Library in New York. (WRIC)

 

 

 

   2）In Support of He Fangmei

 

Today, we stand here to speak out for a mother, a courageous human rights defender—for He Fangmei, a Chinese woman who has suffered brutal persecution simply for protecting her child and seeking basic justice.

 

He Fangmei was born in Xinxiang, Henan Province in 1985. She is not a politician, not a social celebrity; she is just one of millions of ordinary mothers. However, her fate was completely changed on the day her daughter, just over one year old, suddenly became paralyzed after receiving the DPT vaccine. Faced with this sudden life-threatening disaster, she chose what all mothers would do—seek help from the government, seek treatment, and seek an explanation. But what she received was not assistance, but evasion; not the truth, but intimidation; not compensation, but repeated knocks on her door by the police. When she discovered countless families across the country suffering the same misfortune, she stood up and organized the “Vaccine Babies Home,” hoping to provide more treatment for victimized children and break the cycle of silence for more families. However, such good deeds became “crimes” under totalitarianism. She was detained, criminally detained, prosecuted, forcibly disappeared, and ultimately convicted.

 

 

Zhang Yan (right) loudly recounts the story of He Fangmei (second from right on the banner; third from right are her three minor children who were once detained in a mental hospital) through a microphone. Photographed by Zhou Mei outside the Flushing Library, New York, December 13, 2025. (WRIC)

 

Banner image created by WRIC.

 

 

He Fangmei was placed under residential surveillance in a designated location for 18 months, giving birth to her infant daughter in a cold, confined environment. Shortly after giving birth, she was sentenced to a gruesome 5-year and 6-month prison term. Meanwhile, her torn family endured excruciating pain. Her husband was sentenced to five years in prison for supporting his wife’s activism; her two young daughters were hospitalized and then secretly moved, unable to be visited by relatives; her eldest son was placed in foster care elsewhere. A once complete and warm family was brutally crushed by the state apparatus. A mother seeking justice for her child has to pay the price of her entire family’s destruction? A citizen exercising their most basic rights has been met with imprisonment and nightmares?

 

We speak out here not only for He Fangmei, but also to tell the world: Under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party, if you dare to seek justice for children—you may be silenced; if you uphold the most basic human rights—you may be imprisoned, hunted down, and disappear.

 

Chinese women’s rights advocates strongly urge the Chinese government to: immediately release He Fangmei; guarantee the basic personal safety and visitation rights of her husband and children; stop persecuting vaccine victims’ families under criminal charges; allow lawyers to meet with them according to law and allow families to obtain information; and ensure that children harmed by vaccines receive genuine treatment, instead of becoming victims of political black boxes.

 

We stand with conscience, speak out for freedom, in the name of mothers, and in the name of humanity. For He Fangmei, for her children, for all those persecuted for their courage—we will not back down, nor will we remain silent. Our cries will not cease until He Fangmei is free.

 

Photo taken by Zhang Yan on December 13, 2025, outside the Flushing Library in New York. (WRIC)

 

 

 

  3） In support of Gulshan Abbas

 

Today, we stand here for a most basic, yet deprived right—to let the world hear the name of Gulshan Abbas. Gulshan Abbas, Uyghur, retired doctor. She was not a politician, not an activist; she was simply an ordinary woman who spent her life practicing medicine, caring for patients, and protecting her community.

 

However—in September 2018, she was forcibly taken from her home. No reason, no notification, no legal process. From that day on, her life was silently erased, disappearing behind the high walls and iron curtain of Xinjiang. Her family searched desperately for two years without any news. It wasn’t until the end of 2020 that they were forced to learn the truth—Gulixian Abbas had been secretly sentenced to twenty years in prison.

 

The banner in the picture shows a Uyghur doctor Gulixian on the far left. Photographed by Zhang Yan on December 13, 2025, outside the Flushing Library in New York. (WRIC)

 

The banner image created by WRIC.

 

Twenty years—for a woman who had never committed a crime, never used violence, and was simply a retired doctor, this is not justice, this is punishment; not a verdict, but the destruction of her life.

 

What’s even more infuriating is that her arrest occurred exactly six days after her sister, Uyghur-American human rights activist Rushan Abbas, publicly revealed the truth about Xinjiang. This is not a coincidence. It is a warning, retaliation, and blatant political intimidation using a relative as a hostage.

 

Her sister once said, “I raised the microphone, and they took my sister away.” This is what Gulixian Abbas experienced. More than seven years have passed—where is she? Is she healthy? Is she still alive? No one knows.

 

When a country can imprison a retired doctor in the dark for twenty years, it can imprison anyone. When a regime uses relatives as hostages, it attempts to silence the voice of an entire ethnic group. We must face the truth—what the Uyghurs are suffering is a blatant genocide. Mass detention, forced labor, forced sterilization and abortion, forced marriage—systematically labeling an entire religious community as “criminal.” All of this is happening.

 

We solemnly appeal to the Chinese government: Immediately release Gulixian Abbas! Reveal her whereabouts! Allow her family and lawyers to visit her! Immediately cease the collective persecution of innocent Uyghurs under the guise of “counter-terrorism”! Gulixian cannot speak today, but we can. She cannot stand up today, but we can. Her freedom has not been restored, and our voices will not cease. As long as Gulixian is not free, we will not remain silent. Persecution of church pastors, denial of freedom of belief—the Chinese government’s trampling on the constitution is shameless!

 

(Photo: WRIC Zhang Yan)

 

 

 

Forum on the China “Chained Woman” ——and in Recognition of Zhao, Lanjian for Exploring the Truth

Posted on by

WRIC                                                                         09-5-2022

 

At the end of January 2022, the “Chained Woman” case broke out in Xuzhou, China. The tragic experience of the “Chained Woman”, such as being abducted and sold, chained all the time, beaten, pulled all the teeth, raped and group-raped, and living a life inferior to livestock has aroused the deep sympathy and concern of hundreds of millions of people. Under the pressure of the public media, the governments of Jiangsu Province and Xuzhou City successively published five investigation reports, and lightly punished the responsible persons and several low-level officials while avoiding the important and high-level officials, and falsely claimed that the “Chained Woman” was Xiao Huamei from Yunnan Province. But Chinese netizens disagreed with the government’s conclusion, pointing out that the five reports were contradictory and full of loopholes.

 

Then Zhao, Lanjian, a reporter, broke through many barriers and found Xiaohuamei’s uncle in Nujiang Village at the southwestern border of China. Having interviewed Xiaohuamei’s uncle, he published the interview video and a written report Xiaohuamei’s Uncle: The Chained Woman Is Not Xiaohuamei, directly refuting the lies of the CCP government with factual evidence. The report immediately became viral, and received tens of millions of views. Then Zhao, Lanjian became the CCP’s target. He received dozens of telephone warnings, harsh questioning and intimidation from the police of five provinces and cities. In August of this year, Zhao, Lanjian successfully came to New York. He has been constantly speaking for the “Chained Woman” and telling his own experience and the truth.

 

Women’s Rights in China, Christian Alliance for Righteousness and other NGOs jointly organize this forum to voice for the countless “Chained Women” in mainland China, and to commend Zhao, Lanjian for his courage to explore the truth without fear of the pressure. We hope that Zhao, Lanjian will join us in the new environment and continue fighting for the rights of the Chinese women and children and social injustice. We cordially invite all with conscience to join us. Let us speak out for the voiceless who are suppressed at the bottom of society!

 

Theme:

Forum on the China “Chained Woman”  ——and in Recognition of Zhao Lanjian for Exploring the  Truth

 

Time/Venue:

September 17th, 2022, 2:00pm–4:00pm Taiwan Center

137-44 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY 11354

 

Guest Speakers:

-Ann Noonan, Executive Director of Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting

-Ann Lau, Chair of Visual Artists Guild

-Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights without Frontiers

-Ilshat H. Kokbore, Director of Uyghur Human Rights Project

-Tsultrim Gyatso, Chinese Liaison Officer at the Office of Tibet Washington DC

-Chen, Pokong, self-media commentator

-Zhou, Fengsuo, President of Humanitarian China

-Zhang, Lin, self-media commentator

-Wang, Juntao, President of China Democracy Party

-Reporter, Zhao, Lanjian (will share his experience and spiritual journey)

 

Presiders:

Zhang, Jing, President of Women’s Rights in China

Shao, Jun, President of Christian Alliance for Righteousness

 

Xiao Huamei’s Uncle Interviewed: “The Chained Woman” is not Xiao Huamei

Posted on by

WRIC                    9-17-2022

 

 

At the end of January 2022, the “Chained Woman” case broke out in Xuzhou, China. The tragic experience of the “Chained Woman”, such as being abducted and sold, chained all the time, beaten, pulled all the teeth, raped and group-raped, and living a life inferior to livestock has aroused the deep sympathy and concern of hundreds of millions of people.

 

Under the pressure of the public media, the governments of Jiangsu Province and Xuzhou City successively published five investigation reports, and lightly punished the responsible persons and several low-level officials while avoiding the important and high-level officials, and falsely claimed that the “Chained Woman” was Xiao Huamei from Yunnan Province.

 

But Chinese netizens disagreed with the government’s conclusion, pointing out that the five reports were contradictory and full of loopholes.

 

Then Zhao, Lanjian, a reporter, broke through many barriers and found Xiao Huamei’s uncle in Nujiang Village at the southwestern border of China.Having interviewed Xiao Huamei’s uncle, he published the interview video and a written report Xiao Huamei’s Uncle: The Chained Woman Is Not Xiao  Huamei, directly refuting the lies of the CCP government with factual evidence. The report immediately became viral, and received tens of millions of views.

 

 

 

Groups Rallied at the UN to Call for Revoke Peng Liyuan’s Status as “Special Envoy”

Posted on by

WRIC Report/Photos                                             03-08-2023

 

 

Front of the gate of the United Nations Headquarters in New York to demonstrate two demands, that is, to call for international attention to the incident of the “Chained woman” and the “Special Envoy” title of the Peng Liyuan. Groups participating in the demonstration include Women’s Rights in China, Christian Alliance for Righteousness, Church of Rock New York, Humanitarian China, China Reborn, China Democracy Party, the China Federal Party, and the Chinese Democracy and Human Rights Alliance. Representatives of each organization made statements. Zhang Jing, president of Women’s Rights in China has gave a speech and was entrusted to read Mr. Wang Dan’s speech.

 

Zhang Lin was giving a speech. (Photo by WRIC)

WRIC members was holed signs to Call for revoke Peng Liyuan’s status as “Special Envoy”.(Right: Jing Zhang) (Photo by WRIC)

 

The “Chained woman” in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, which was exposed two months ago along with the “Iron Cage Girl” in Yulin, Shaanxi, a few days ago, detonated the Internet world because of their extremely tragic experiences. Shocked and angry reactions blew up. In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than hundreds of thousands of women (girls) who are bought, sold, kidnapped, and raped in mainland China every year to which those are a common event. Because in addition to the general loss of conscience and corrupt hearts under the CCP’s rule, there are also institutional problems such as corruption in the public security bureau, law enforcement officers participating in crimes and becoming the umbrella for criminals, the pro CCP officials, from large to small, contribute to the “supply” of extramarital sex demand. The process is no different from an assembly line that handles humans. For example, Xuzhou was originally a beautiful virgin who was used by the secretary and county magistrate of Xuzhou Feng County to sexually bribe the mayor above. These women have been raped and gang-raped all their lives, turned into reproductive machines, tortured, sexually abused, chained, locked in iron cages, pits, and pigpens, and spent their lives as mental patients. The ones that are deemed to be useless are murdered.

 

Pastor Shao Jun was giving a speech. (Photo by WRIC)

(Photo by WRIC)

 

When the case of the “Chained woman” came to light, the local government tried its best to cover up and deny it. Later, the Internet around the world clicked on it more than 20 billion times. Amid the widespread clamor for accountability, the county, city, and even provincial governments had to conduct “comprehensive” and “in-depth” investigations and published five investigation reports. But they all point at a deer as if it was a horse, refurbish lies, and cover up mistakes. This once again fully demonstrates the usual methods of the CCP: Suppressing the media, deleting the posts, tracking down and suppressing those who revealed the truth, and centralizing these “Chained Women” and “Iron Caged Women” (or even make them disappear) to prevent them from being exposed again; They sacrificed pawns to save rooks, deal with a few small officials, etc.; instead of allowing the facts to be exposed, thoroughly investigating the truth, investigating the criminal and civil responsibilities of criminals, examining the root causes of the system, and improving the operation of public power.

 

Humanitarian China’s president Zhou Fensuo (Right).

Jing Zhang was giving a speech.

Li yuan (WRIC member. left 2) with the supporters of Ukraine.

China Democracy Party president Wang Juntao. (Right)

Jing Zhang was entrusted to read Mr. Wang Dan’s speech.

 

Although we were fortunate enough to leave mainland China to avoid such an inhuman fate, we still worry about our compatriots in China, including our loved ones in China, such as wives, mothers, daughters or sisters, lest they be knocked down when they are kidnapped, raped, and transported to some backcountry where they were forced to marry, raped and gang-raped, chained, and locked in a dungeon… Their dreams, happiness, and even dignity were brutally destroyed, and they would end up as a “Chained woman” or “Iron Cage Girl”.

 

Two letters were mailed to UNESCO, one was an open letter signed by 410 people, with a single petition, urging UNESCO to revoke Peng Liyuan’s Special Envoy status and to Promote Girls’ and Women’s Education; The statement of the demonstration in front of the gate, in addition to demanding that Peng Liyuan’s UN special envoy title be revoked, also called on the international community to pay attention to the incident of the chained woman in China, urge the Chinese government to truly and effectively combat human trafficking, thoroughly investigate the truth of the chained woman case, and deal with it seriously. All criminals involved in the case should be charged and they must compensate for the lifelong sufferings of the Chained Girl, Iron Cage Girl, and Cave Girl.

Two letters were sent to the UNESCO.