Zhao Changqing (born April 1969) is a history teacher and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

in the

People’s Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Biography

Zhao Changqing hails from a small village in

Shaanxi province Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ni ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In September 1988, he entered the History department of the Shaanxi teacher training college.

Student activism

In April 1989, he and a group of classmates started a students' self-governing committee. Arrested in June 1989 for taking part in the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

, he was imprisoned in Qincheng prison in Beijing for more than half a year, but was then discharged and sent back to his old school in Shaanxi, where he graduated in 1992. From his graduation until 1998, Zhao worked as a teacher at the Shaanxi Hanzhong Nuclear Industry Factory 813.

Petition to the 15th National Congress

In August 1997, he petitioned the 15th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party to introduce political reforms with his essay "Reform the political system and take the path to democratisation". In defense of fellow workers against corruption and substandard working conditions, he tried to stand for election as a factory representative to the National People Congress, on a platform critical of the All China Federation of Trade Unions. He was detained on 25 March 1998, and was tried on 6 September 1998 and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment.

Petition to the 16th National Congress

In November 2002, he was responsible for drafting the Open letter to the Sixteenth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and collecting 192 signatures to support his demands for democracy. Zhao was charged with "attempted subversion of state power" and tried behind closed doors at the

Xian Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqin ...

People's Court on 10 July 2003. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for his crimes.

HRIC Human Rights in China () is a New York-based international, Chinese, non-governmental organization with intentions to promote international human rights and facilitate the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China ...

president Liu Qing denounced the trial for being "just another form of intimidation through an unfair legal process. It is especially objectionable that a trial over an open letter was held in secret on the pretext of protecting state secrets".

Imprisonment

In December 2005, he refused to participate in a flag-raising ceremony and refused to sing the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

, and was put into

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

for 40 days. On 18 February 2006, he was again punished with solitary confinement for 3 months for refusing to take part in military drills and for receiving

Falun Gong Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a new religious movement.Junker, Andrew. 2019. ''Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora'', pp. 23–24, 33, 119 ...

members. He remained in prison and is on Amnesty International's watch list. According to his Twitter (zhaochangqing89), he left China and came to the United States in December 2018.

References

External links

Amnesty InternationalIFEX
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Changqing Chinese democracy activists Chinese dissidents 1969 births Living people Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China