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. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

Biography

Zhao Changqing hails from a small village in

Shaanxi province Shaanxi is a province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to the west. Shaanxi ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, 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 The National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (; ) is a party congress that is held every five years. The National Congress is formally the highest body within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since 1987 the National Congress has b ...

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 16th 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

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

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

, and was put into

solitary confinement Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...

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, also called Falun Dafa, is a new religious movement founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near t ...

members. He remained in prison and is on

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

'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