A Chinese language rights activist who overtly supported the “white paper” protest motion of November 2022 has utilized for political asylum within the Netherlands after studying that he might 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 throughout 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 few 20-minute drive from The Hague.
RFA: When did you permit the immigration detention heart?
Zhang Hongyuan: They ultimately 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 motive in your political asylum software?
#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 Road in Wuhan, though the individuals who have been really holding up clean sheets of paper weren’t on Hanzheng Road, however on Yiyuan Highway.
The true motive 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 throughout the pandemic.
RFA: How did you come by that info?
Zhang Hongyuan: Folks linked to the case advised 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 throughout 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 needed to interview him by calling his Chinese language cellular phone [without messaging first], the police would have recognized about it immediately, despite the fact that we by no means really gave interviews on the cellphone. We discovered a safer approach of giving the interview later.
In the long run, the police advised my father that he had been interviewed by greater than 60 completely different media organizations all over the world. My father did not even understand what number of there have been as a result of he did not depend 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 need to arrest him, and the central political and authorized affairs committee [in Beijing] needed to make it an open-and-shut case and requested the Hubei political and authorized affairs committee to discover a approach. They needed [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 below round the clock surveillance, with guards at his door.
There’s a automobile downstairs exterior our condo constructing with a staff of three folks following him 24/7. It appears they’re on the brink of detain him at any time. I have been capable of depart [China], however there isn’t any approach he’ll be capable to.
RFA: Was there another motive why the Hubei authorities has been retaining such a detailed 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.
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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, among the communication was accomplished 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: Through the “white paper” motion, you stated that you just witnessed protests on Hanzheng Road?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure. Hanzheng Road is a wholesale shopping center in Wuhan, and it helps giant numbers of individuals, however below the strict lockdown circumstances, that they had no solution 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: Had been there any political slogans shouted on Hanzheng Road, for instance calling on Xi Jinping to step down?
Zhang Hongyuan: By the point I bought there on Nov. 27, 2022, it was night time, 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 go away?
Zhang Hongyuan: Sure. I had been advised by my sources that if the Hubei provincial political and authorized affairs committee needed to have me stopped on the border, it must make this request by way of larger ranges of presidency, significantly as I’ve a clear felony report. The entire course of took simply three days from my resolution to go away, to my touchdown in Amsterdam, as soon as I heard upfront from mates that we’d each be detained. I left very rapidly. It wasn’t till after I arrived that the police advised Zhang Yi that I’d doubtless have obtained a sentence of 3-5 years, as an confederate. We did not know that earlier than; solely that I’d 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 fact and accountability about that. She determined to go away 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 after 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 at all times 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 prompted him to be consistently arrested and questioned by the police station, and introduced numerous hassle to our household. However as I bought older and my world view modified, I understood that what my father was doing was really selling democratic progress, and I at all times supported him after that. After I was in highschool, he was additionally known as by the police station for questioning now and again, and the questioning lasted 24 hours. One time he was accused of “choosing quarrels and stirring up hassle”, 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 passed.
RFA: What touched you about that?
Zhang Hongyuan: Dr. Li stated {that a} wholesome society can’t have just one voice.
RFA: Why was that so transferring?
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 might make an announcement like that earlier than he died.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.