Chinese student Zhang Yadi arrested for promoting awareness of Tibet, held without access to a lawyer
(BANGKOK, October 21, 2025)–The Chinese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Yadi, a Chinese student and activist for Tibetan rights, said Fortify Rights today. Chinese authorities arrested Zhang Yadi, 22, on July 31, 2025, in the city of Shangri-La, Yunnan Province, and charged her under Article 103 (2) of China’s Criminal Law with “endangering national security” and potentially “inciting others to split the country and undermine national unity.”
“Chinese authorities should free Zhang Yadi immediately. They arrested a 22 year-old student who committed no crime and instead works to promote understanding among people in China about the culture and human rights situation in Tibet. To deny her the right to legal representation, to hold her incommunicado, and to prevent her from pursuing her studies violates her basic rights,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights. “Zhang Yadi poses no threat to China’s national security, nor is she inciting division or undermining national unity. On the contrary, her activities were aimed at enhancing cultural understanding between the diverse ethnic and religious groups in China.”
Zhang Yadi had been involved in activities promoting understanding of Tibetan culture among Chinese people, and speaking up for the rights of Tibetans, with a group known as Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet, while studying at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris in France. Chinese authorities arrested her when she returned home to China for a routine summer visit. She is believed to be held in a detention centre in her hometown of Changsha, Hunan Province.
Zhang Yadi, who was active online, is a Buddhist and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, her first language, as well as English and French, and speaks Tibetan. Her partner is a French-Tibetan who is a French national. She was due to begin a Master’s degree in Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London in September.
The Chinese authorities have so far denied her legal representation. Zhang Yadi’s mother hired a lawyer and Chinese authorities denied them permission to meet with Zhang Yadi. When Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong arrived in Changsha on September 16 to meet Zhang Yadi’s mother to offer advice, he was taken away. Jiang had already lost his license to practise law in the crackdown on human rights lawyers in 2008.
China issued a new draft law in September, banning actions that might “damage ethnic unity” – even if they occur overseas. This is the latest move in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s campaign to co-opt, coerce, and control religious and ethnic groups, said Fortify Rights. The CCP is also seeking to rename Tibet as “Xizang,” the Mandarin Chinese name for the region, as part of its campaign of forced “Sinicization” of the region — an attempt to deny the region’s unique ethnic and religious identity. Zhang Yadi’s arrest comes at a time when the CCP is particularly sensitive about Tibet, following the 90th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Tibet.
“Zhang Yadi is the latest in a long line of peaceful activists who Chinese authorities arrested simply for expressing opinions that diverge from the CCP’s narrative,” said Benedict Rogers. “The international community, and especially the government of France, where she studied and where her partner is a citizen, and the United Kingdom, where she was due to begin postgraduate studies, have a responsibility to pressure the authorities in China to release her. We urge the governments of France and the United Kingdom to lead an urgent global effort to free Zhang Yadi.”