A Chinese language rights activist who brazenly supported the “white paper” protest motion of November 2022 has utilized for political asylum within the Netherlands after studying that he could possibly be focused as a part of an ongoing case towards his dissident father. Zhang Hongyuan, son of veteran Wuhan-based rights activist Zhang Yi, flew from Beijing to Amsterdam on April 13 after studying that he was being named as a co-defendant alongside his father, who’s being focused for giving interviews to abroad media organizations in the course of the Wuhan lockdown of 2020. He spoke to RFA Mandarin about his present state of affairs:
RFA: The place are you proper now?
Zhang Hongyuan: I’m now in a city within the Netherlands, a couple of 20-minute drive from The Hague.
RFA: When did you allow the immigration detention heart?
Zhang Hongyuan: They finally determined to place me on this open camp after I had been within the immigration detention heart for 12 days. I had my first interview with the immigration bureau within the detention heart. After I stayed within the immigration jail for twelve days, they lastly determined to place me on this open camp. I accomplished [two interviews] with the immigration bureau within the immigration jail.
RFA: You shot some video of the “white paper” protest that went viral. Was this the principle purpose in your political asylum utility?
#武汉 2022/11/27夜晚11点 中山大道(汉正街站) pic.twitter.com/dAykIJMyAs
— 自由亚洲电台 (@RFA_Chinese) November 27, 2022
Zhang Hongyuan: It is one of many causes. I did get video from the [police] clearance of the demonstration on Hanzheng Avenue in Wuhan, though the individuals who have been truly holding up clean sheets of paper weren’t on Hanzheng Avenue, however on Yiyuan Street.
The actual purpose I’m in search of political asylum is that we obtained information that they’re planning to prosecute me alongside my father as a co-defendant as a result of my father gave interviews to international media in the course of the pandemic.
RFA: How did you come by that data?
Zhang Hongyuan: Individuals linked to the case informed us, however I can not disclose the small print.
RFA: Does that imply somebody within the authorities?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure.
RFA: Numerous folks spoke to international media in the course of the lockdown, so what’s so particular about Zhang Yi’s case?
Zhang Hongyuan: It is as a result of we have been in Wuhan, and he was giving interviews to any international media that requested, right through lockdown. And since international journalists would let him know they wished to interview him by calling his Chinese language cellular phone [without messaging first], the police would have identified about it immediately, despite the fact that we by no means truly gave interviews on the cellphone. We discovered a safer method of giving the interview later.
In the long run, the police informed my father that he had been interviewed by greater than 60 totally different media organizations around the globe. My father did not even understand what number of there have been as a result of he did not rely them.
RFA: What’s your father’s state of affairs now?
Zhang Hongyuan: Proper now he is in Wuhan. First off, the [ruling Chinese Communist Party’s] political and authorized affairs committee of Hubei province wish to arrest him, and the central political and authorized affairs committee [in Beijing] wished to make it an open-and-shut case and requested the Hubei political and authorized affairs committee to discover a method. They wished [me] as his son to be arrested alongside him and charged as a co-defendant. Then they discovered I had left the nation after you reported that I used to be in search of asylum, and now my father is beneath round the clock surveillance, with guards at his door.
There’s a automobile downstairs outdoors our house constructing with a group of three folks following him 24/7. It appears they’re on the point of detain him at any time. I have been capable of go away [China], however there is not any method he’ll be capable to.
RFA: Was there another purpose why the Hubei authorities has been conserving such an in depth eye on Zhang Yi?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure. As a result of he has been calling for the discharge of [disappeared pandemic journalist] Fang Bin for the previous three years … in interviews with international media.
RFA: Why did the federal government take motion towards you, when it was your father who was giving the interviews?
Zhang Hongyuan: As a result of I’m his weak point. They threaten him by threatening to arrest us each collectively, I feel that is [official] Chinese language logic. Additionally, I assisted him with the interviews, as a result of all of his encrypted chats required circumvention instruments to get across the Nice Firewall [of internet censorship]. When he was interviewed by the Voice of America, a number of the communication was executed by way of e-mail like Gmail, and I additionally helped him use software program like Skype and WhatsApp.
RFA: So it was simply technical help?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure, technical help. However after he was interviewed, when the police got here to threaten him, I additionally shot a video of them that was broadcast by Japanese TV station NHK.
RFA: In the course of the “white paper” motion, you stated that you just witnessed protests on Hanzheng Avenue?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure. Hanzheng Avenue is a wholesale shopping center in Wuhan, and it helps massive numbers of individuals, however beneath the strict lockdown situations, that they had no option to work and no meals to eat. Then got here the white paper motion after the Urumqi incident, and the entire nation marched collectively. Even in Wuhan, they started to carry demonstrations towards the strict zero-COVID coverage.
RFA: Have been there any political slogans shouted on Hanzheng Avenue, for instance calling on Xi Jinping to step down?
Zhang Hongyuan: By the point I acquired there on Nov. 27, 2022, it was evening, and so they have been clearing the protesters away. I did not hear any slogans like that.
RFA: How did your escape from China go?
Zhang Hongyuan: The method was comparatively easy, though I used to be very apprehensive as I used to be leaving. One fear was that the airline would cease me from boarding, and the opposite was that the border guards would cease me.
RFA: However you continue to took the danger and determined to depart?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure. I had been informed by my sources that if the Hubei provincial political and authorized affairs committee wished to have me stopped on the border, it must make this request by way of greater ranges of presidency, significantly as I’ve a clear prison file. The entire course of took simply three days from my determination to depart, to my touchdown in Amsterdam, as soon as I heard upfront from associates that we might each be detained. I left very rapidly. It wasn’t till after I arrived that the police informed Zhang Yi that I might doubtless have obtained a sentence of 3-5 years, as an confederate. We did not know that earlier than; solely that I might be arrested.
I had different causes for leaving. In March, I drove from Wuhan to Laos, smuggling Yang Min into Laos. Yang Min’s daughter died of COVID-19 … and she or he tried to get some reality and accountability about that. She determined to depart China as a result of she was unwilling to be topic to restrictions on speech in China, together with harassment by the state safety police. We drove 3,000 kilometers from Wuhan to Vientiane, simply the 2 of us.
RFA: Did the federal government find out about this?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure they did, as a result of once we swiped our ID playing cards 3 times on the Yunnan border, and our ID playing cards have been photographed, along with the license plate. I additionally assisted Ai Weiwei, who made a documentary known as “Coronation” in 2020 in regards to the emergence of the pandemic in Wuhan. I made subtitles for interviews in Hubei dialect, and my identify seems within the credit on the finish.
RFA: Was this one of many belongings you have been to be charged with?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure.
RFA: Have you ever all the time supported your father’s phrases and deeds?
Zhang Hongyuan: Earlier than I used to be in highschool, I did not actually perceive my father’s phrases and deeds, which precipitated him to be continually arrested and questioned by the police station, and introduced plenty of bother to our household. However as I acquired older and my world view modified, I understood that what my father was doing was truly selling democratic progress, and I all the time supported him after that. Once I was in highschool, he was additionally known as by the police station for questioning once in a while, and the questioning lasted 24 hours. One time he was accused of “choosing quarrels and stirring up bother”, and he was detained for 15 days or just a few days. I calmly went to the police station alone to ask them for solutions about how my father was doing. I demanded a solution in writing.
RFA: What left the largest impression on you, after three years of the pandemic in Wuhan?
Zhang Hongyuan: I feel it was when Dr. Li Wenliang handed.
RFA: What touched you about that?
Zhang Hongyuan: Dr. Li stated {that a} wholesome society can not have just one voice.
RFA: Why was that so shifting?
Zhang Hongyuan: As a result of he proved his level along with his life. He had been a celebration member earlier than, however I used to be actually moved that he may make an announcement like that earlier than he died.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.