Tag Archives: Zhang Zhan

Zhang Zhan Received the “Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights Award”. Zhang Jing Delivered a Speech at the Award Ceremony

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By Jing Zhang (WRIC)                                          12-28-2025

 

In addition to Zhang Zhan, Ho Kwai-Lan from Hong Kong and Ming Ju-Cheng from Taiwan were also awarded the “Outstanding Contribution to Human Rights Award”.

 

Distinguished Chairman and Directors of the Chinese Democratic Education Foundation (CDEF), honored guests, and fellow colleagues:

Greetings to you all!

 

Today, on behalf of Ms. Zhang Zhan—who is currently suffering in a Chinese prison—I accept this profound honor: the 2025 “Outstanding Human Rights Contribution Award” presented by the Chinese Democratic Education Foundation. This distinction is a direct response to a warrior who fights for the freedom and sacrificed herself for the noble cause. It is also the most powerful and steadfast support for those “prisoners of conscience” in China who silently endure loneliness and suffering in prison, unable to speak for themselves.

 

President Feng Congde introduced the recipients of the “Outstanding Human Rights Contribution Award”—Ho Kwai-lan from Hong Kong, Zhang Zhan from China, and Ming Ju-cheng from Taiwan.

Zhang Jing, founder of the Women’s Rights in China, delivers a speech at the awards ceremony. (Image from the Democracy Education Foundation)

 

The photos (from left to right) show: Chen Chuangchuang, Zhao Changqing, Zhang Jing, Zhou Junhong, Zhou Fengsuo, and Zheng Yun. (Photos provided by Xuguang Wei)

 

A group photo of the foundation’s former and current board members, as well as guests invited to give speeches and accept the medals on their behalf. (Photo provided by Xuguang Wei)

 

Zhang Zhan, currently serving her sentence in prison, is unaware at this moment that she has been honored once again, nor can she come here in person to share this glory. For those who have lost their freedom under an authoritarian regime, her lack of knowledge may perhaps spare her from heightened mental and physical retaliation that such recognition often triggers within prison walls. However, I believe the power of this award can penetrate the distant iron gates and high walls, allowing Zhang Zhan to feel encouraged and warmed: across the ocean, all the colleagues of the Democratic Education Foundation share a heartbeat that resonates in harmony with hers.

Taking this opportunity, please allow me to briefly introduce Ms. Zhang Zhan.

Born in 1983, Zhang Zhan graduated from Southwestern University of Finance and Economics with a master’s degree. She served as a lawyer and a citizen journalist. In 2015, she was baptized as a Christian. Since 2018, she has been detained multiple times. The longest instance was in September 2019, when she used WeChat to forward information regarding the “Anti-Extradition Law” protests in Hong Kong and held a large umbrella on the streets of Shanghai with the words “Communist Party Step Down” written on it. Consequently, she was criminally detained by Shanghai police for 65 days. After her release, this woman—who could have lived a stable life in a prosperous city—chose the most difficult and perilous path.

In 2020, when Wuhan was mired in the panic and lockdown of the pandemic, Zhang Zhan traveled alone against the tide. She used her camera to record the truth of the lockdown and filmed the government’s trampling of human rights. With her fragile shoulders, she took up the great responsibility of morality, becoming one of the “kindling carriers” providing warmth to others in the bitter cold. For this, she was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentenced to four years. After her release in 2024, she continued to promote human rights, tell the truth, and assist other activists. Three months later, she was detained again. In September 2025, the Chinese government used the “pocket crime” of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” to sentence her to another four-year term.

AZhang Zhan once said: “The problem of this country is a systemic one. Freedom is never free. I hope this country changes. I feel we should walk on bravely and persevere.”

Over the years, Zhang Zhan’s story has spread throughout the international community. In addition to this award, she has received honors from numerous overseas human rights organizations. In June 2023, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) nominated three Chinese human rights figures as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, and Zhang Zhan was among them. Nominated alongside her were Peng Lifa, the protester on Beijing’s Sitong Bridge, and Li Kangmeng, the female student who acted bravely during the “White Paper Movement.” The Commission emphasized in its statement: “The courage of these heroes deserves to be honored by the whole world, and the international community must demand their unconditional release.”

Zhang Zhan’s experience is a microcosm of the thousands upon thousands of guardians of conscience since the establishment of the CCP. From Lin Zhao to Zhang Zhan, and many more unnamed women, they have paid a tragic price on the road to human rights, democracy, and freedom in China. They have sacrificed their youth and lost the joy of family life. Among them are mothers, daughters, and wives; they burn themselves to light up the dark night, leaving themselves covered in wounds.

Zhang Zhan once said: “As people who pay attention to the truth of this country, if we only stop at sadness without taking action to change this sad reality, then our emotions are cheap.”

Our sister Zhang Zhan, though imprisoned, is not sad because she is guided by her faith. Nor is she alone, because in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia, voices are shouting alongside her across the globe. There are also many friends “walking the Way of the Cross with Sister Zhang Zhan,” passing on warmth through their actions. Prison can lock up Zhang Zhan’s body, but it cannot lock up the blessings and praise people have for her. It is everyone’s wish: Hold on, Sister! We are waiting for you to come home healthy.

I believe that if Zhang Zhan had the opportunity, she would surely come here in person to thank the colleagues of the Democratic Education Foundation, as well as all the fellow travelers and friends who are willing to “walk the Way of the Cross” with her.

Finally, I am deeply honored to accept this distinction on behalf of Ms. Zhang Zhan today. Once again, I thank the Board of Directors and all colleagues of the Democratic Education Foundation for honoring her. I am also proud of and pay my highest respects to Ms. He Guilan (Gwyneth Ho), who is currently in a Hong Kong prison, and Mr. Ming Juzheng, who has long spared no effort in promoting the ideals of democracy and freedom. Thank you all!

 

(Zhang Zhan is currently detained in the First Ward of the Shanghai Women’s Prison—the first stop for female prisoners’ reform, also known as the New Prisoner Area. Address: No. 1601 Zhangjing Road, Sijing Town, Songjiang District, Shanghai. Postcode: 201601)

 

 

Zhang Jing poses for a photo with Feng Congde, president of the China National Democratic Foundation, at the award ceremony held at the Father of the Democracy Memorial Hall. (Photo provided by the Women’s Committee of the Independent Chinese PEN Center)

 

 

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

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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)

 

 

 

Yiwu Liao: We waited for news of her death

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From Yiwu Liao                                                09-06-2023

 

 

Zhang Zhan, who is on hunger strike in prison, is critically ill again, and almost all international human rights organizations have repeatedly called for her immediate release. Three days ago, Amnesty International Germany wrote to me again: “Mr. Yiwu, last year at the Frankfurt Book Fair, we did two activities for Zhang Zhan together, which were broadcast live on German TV and had a wide impact. But this year, there is news that her life is in danger. …… Zhang Zhan is the last important character in your famous book “Wuhan”, we can do something more for her. …… ”

 

 

I wrote back and said yes. Yes, thanks to the sustained efforts of many human rights workers, and thanks to the spread of the book Wuhan, Zhang Zhan is an indelible “historical symbol” of the “Wuhan Virus Hijacking”  -In May and July next year, the English version of “Wuhan” will be released in the UK and the US.

 

I am going to post the end of Wuhan:

——————————————————————

 

At noon on November 14th, 2021, the human rights worker Wang Jianhong emailed the “Written application for medical parole release for Zhang Zhan” submitted to the Shanghai Prison Administration by Zhang Zhan’s family.

 

Respected leaders:

I am Zhang Zhan’s elder brother, Zhang Ju. Zhang Zhan is currently being held in the Fifth Prison District of the Shanghai Women’s Prison; her prison number is 27997. In August 2021, in the reception room of the women’s prison we talked by phone with a doctor and Zhang Zhan, who had been sent to a hospital. From this we learned that Zhang Zhan’s body was extremely weak and that she weighed less than 40 kilograms [88 pounds]. Zhang Zhan is 177 cm tall [5 foot 8] and her normal weight had been 60-65 kg [132-143 pounds]. From when Zhang Zhan was detained in the Pudong Detention Center to when she was transferred to the Women’s Prison, her body had deteriorated due to various reasons. I asked the doctor if Zhang Zhan might die? The doctor plainly stated it was very likely.

 

On October 29th, 2021, my mother was notified by the prison to go to the prison for a video meeting with Zhang Zhan. The Zhang Zhan my mother saw was weaker than what we had heard on the phone in August. Zhang Zhan’s weight now is probably less than 40 kilograms. She needed support from others to walk, and her neck was unable to support her head. Her face and forehead were all skin and bone, appearing bloodless, as if her life was hanging by a thread. In Zhang Zhan’s current physical condition, she cannot walk on her own. With the support of others or crutches, she can barely walk a distance of 20-30 meters [65-100 feet]. When my mother heard this terrible news, she was so heartbroken she fell to her knees before the prison staff, pleading with them to give Zhang Zhan humane care.

 

Prolonged detention and starvation have caused irreversible damage to Zhang Zhan’s internal organs and secretory system. According to the relevant provisions of the “Notice of the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Justice, and the National Health and Family Planning Commission on Issuing the ‘Provisions for Temporary Serving of a Sentence Outside Prison’”, Zhang Zhan’s current physical condition and illness have already met relevant conditions for “treatment on medical parole”. Regardless of the relevant laws and regulations or humanitarian principles, we hereby apply for permission to allow Zhang Zhan to seek medical parole. We are well aware that the Zhang Zhan case has a certain degree of sensitivity. From the perspective of our family, we are willing to cooperate with the relevant requirements of the police, prisons and other relevant departments.

Zhang Ju

November 6, 2021

 

 

Over two months ago, I sent the closing paragraphs of my book God Is Dead to several Westerners, including the former chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, Carl Gershman. Carl was deeply moved and forwarded an article from the Washington Post to me. Five days previously on November 7, the Post’s editorial board had published, “Opinion: She told the truth about Wuhan. Now she is near death in a Chinese prison,” which concluded: “Ms. Zhang should be saluted for her intrepid attempts to record the chaos and cataclysm of Wuhan in those early weeks. She was a sentinel of a looming disaster. Her journalism was not a crime. She must not spend another moment behind bars. She must not be allowed to die.”

 

But my thoughts linger on the words of Zhang Zhan’s brother on Twitter: “My sister may not live much longer. In the coming cold winter, if she’s unable to persevere, I hope the world will remember her as she was.”

 

Apart from a very few appeals and notations, what else can I do? Beckett’s immortal play “Waiting for Godot” has evolved into “Waiting for the God of Death” in this case. There are millions of Chinese netizens following Zhang Zhan. Every one of them knows that Godot or the God of Death will eventually appear, they just don’t know where and when: it might be in a prison cell, or it might be like Liu Xiaobo, who, in name only, was “paroled for medical treatment” in accordance with the law, but still died in captivity.

 

We are awaiting news of her death. We are helpless. In the Bible, the record of the miracle of “resurrection,” fictitious or not, like Godot, causes human beings dominated by the World Wide Web to lose patience each passing day. I have been in exile for ten years, far enough away from the time and space of the Communist Party of China, yet I am still wrapped up in the shadow of the Wuhan virus, which is even more limitless than the Chernobyl nuclear leak. In a letter to Hans Balmes, the German language editor of this book, I wrote: “The fictional and non-fictional characters in this book all disappear one by one. Zhang Zhan, the last, is not missing, but waiting to die… …”

 

As regards Wuhan, Zhang Zhan produced 122 self-media videos and Kcriss only 4. The common denominator with this “intruder” was trying to understand more about the P4 lab. The longest video recorded by Zhang Zhan, 21 minutes and 46 seconds, was made on April 27, 2020. She personally uploaded to YouTube “A Visit to the Mysterious Wuhan Virus Research Institute: Is the Source of the Virus Related to It”. Seventeen days later, the Shanghai police crossed provincial boundaries to arrest her on charges of “picking quarrels and inciting trouble.”

 

I’ve recorded and compiled Zhang Zhan’s intermittent, breathless commentary in the film:

 

I finally got to sleep sometime after three o’clock last night but was woken up by an alarm clock at eight o’clock.

This P4, I have been here three times this year. The path before me is newly made. Over the wall beside it is the P4. There’s a high-voltage electric wire fence atop the wall. Troops have assumed control, and no one can enter. I’ll still walk around it and give it a try. As is know the world over, the most dangerous virus research is undertaken within these two circular and square buildings…

The surroundings here are very nice, as the P4’s backed by green hills with a small, lush stream in front of it and black birds fly overhead. I don’t know what kind of bird that is. If there weren’t this high-voltage fence and the workplace behind the wall… Last time here I climbed the hills but came across a gorge I couldn’t get past. The dense woods also blocked my view. There is a cemetery in the hills that evokes our sad memories of the dead.

Every time I come, I come upon different sights and things, and each time I get a little deeper than previous time. We will only be able to trace the truth about the source of the virus through perseverance and patience. Here is the closest we can get to the rear entrance. Before there was any evidence, there was speculation over how the virus moved from bats to humans, over how it passed across the tables of voracious diners, folk rumors, conspiracy theories, and so on, the root causes of which were fear of the regime and the system. Nobody has the power to stop this. Just like today, as we look for the truth from the outside, we can only trust our instincts to find our way.

Okay, I’ll go down this pile of rubble. The weeds are thick but there should be no snakes. The oncoming shot is of a big red building under construction. There are four tall chimneys in the distance. The building behind the chimneys is the P4. Every time I come, I can hear the roar of boilers and machines.

The P4 before me is surrounded by iron fences and iron and steel panels. I hope to show the audience more perspectives and more details. But no matter from where you look at it, there are surveillance cameras, even other places inside the walls are separate from the P4…

A restricted area within a restricted area…