It is a question of Xi Jinping’s repression, pure and simple, so let’s mount a new campaign, justified and very necessary
By Benedict Rogers in UCA News
Zhang Yadi is a 22-year-old Chinese student who completed her studies in France this summer and was due to begin postgraduate studies in London last month.
Now, Zhang Yadi is in detention in China and faces up to 15 years in jail.
Her crime? In the language of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), she has been “endangering national security,” and potentially “inciting others to split the country and undermine national unity” – criminal offences under article 103 (2) of China’s Criminal Law.
In reality, all she has done is speak up for the rights of Tibetans and encourage better understanding of Tibetan culture among Han Chinese.
According to news reports, Zhang Yadi – known online as @Tara.Freesoul – has been held incommunicado by state security authorities in China for two-and-a-half months. It is believed that she was arrested on July 31 in the city of Shangri-La, in Yunnan province. She is reportedly held now in a detention centre in her hometown of Changsha, Hunan province.
Amnesty International has issued an Urgent Action calling for her release. Human Rights Watch has observed that she could be jailed for years simply “for speaking out against racial injustice and peacefully exercising her rights.” And Free Tibet has expressed deepening concerns about her safety and her family’s freedom.
Zhang Yadi’s case has – thankfully – generated media attention, and rightly so.
From what has been reported, it would appear that she became active with a group known as Chinese Youth for Tibet (CYST) while studying at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESPC Business School), writing for their online platform.
She is a Buddhist, speaks Tibetan – as well as being fluent in Chinese, her first language, English, and French – and was heading to my alma mater, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London for a Master’s in Anthropology.
She returned home to China for a routine summer visit and ended up in jail.
Of particular profound concern is the fact that she appears to have been denied legal representation. When Chinese human rights lawyer Jian Tianyong arrived in Changsha to meet Zhang’s mother on Sept. 16, he himself was taken away.
Zhang herself has not been in contact with friends since July 30.
Zhang is a bright, intelligent, thoughtful, peaceful student. She has a French-Tibetan partner. She has a pet cat. She works for peace and cultural understanding.
But these are things that the CCP under Xi Jinping detests. As Human Rights Watch’s China researcher Yalkun Uluyol says, “the authorities seem fearful of people building bridges along ethnic lines that deviate from the official Chinese Communist Party line.”
The Chinese Communist Party loathes diversity – of thought, culture, ethnicity, religion, or belief.
Last month, China issued a new draft law, banning actions that might “damage ethnic unity” – even if they occur overseas. It is the latest in Beijing’s efforts to co-opt religion into a CCP-controlled apparatus. Beijing also wants to rename Tibet “Xizang,” the country’s Mandarin name, in order to Sinicize it further.
Zhang’s arrest comes at a time when there is a particularly intense and renewed crackdown on Tibet, following His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday – which Beijing was eager to slander – and a rare visit by Xi Jinping to the region.
Nevertheless, she follows in the footsteps of many brave Chinese campaigners and activists from ethnic and religious groups who have tried to strive for cultural understanding and reconciliation – and been incarcerated by Beijing’s thuggish regime for their efforts.
Let us remember Uyghur dissident Ilham Tohti, currently serving a life sentence for “separatism” for his efforts to promote cultural dialogue, the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and activist Hu Jia for speaking out for Tibet, as well as the Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai and so many other political prisoners in Hong Kong, and the brave lawyer and citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, jailed for her whistle-blowing over the Covid-19 cover-up.
Many brave people across China find ways to dissent from the gangsters ruling Beijing. Some do so anonymously, as they did in the nationwide Blank Paper movement three years ago. Some do so in exile. And some do so in exile and then bravely head home, as Zhang Yadi did.
Zhang Yadi proves that China’s complex litany of atrocity crimes is not – as Beijing would suggest – a challenge of ethnic, religious, or cultural integration. It is a question of Xi Jinping’s repression, pure and simple, and when more and more young Chinese oppose the repression, as Zhang sought to do, the weaker Beijing’s grip on Lhasa – and other regions it has invaded and illegally occupies – becomes.
So let us mount a new campaign, justified and very necessary.
I hope France’s President Emmanuel Macron – whose country gave Zhang Yadi her first place of overseas study – and Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer – where she was destined for her postgraduate studies at SOAS – will lead the charge. #FreeZhangYadi.
This article was originally published in UCA News.