Beginning 2022, WRIC Pays Tribute to all the Sisters in Prison Who are “Prisoners of Conscience”

Zhang Jing, Founder of WRIC Jan 1, 2022

We have had a difficult time leaving 2021 and have entered 2022 with no joy. The New York-based Women’s Rights in China organization continues to be concerned not only with the global devastation of the Wuhan virus but also with the political, economic, and social future of China, which is wavering in uncertainty.

The world has witnessed that, under Xi Jinping’s governance, Chinese society has gradually became more closed as well as viciousness. The people are like meat on the chopping block, a crop of leeks cut in the vegetable garden. There is the policy of levy so severe that it’s basically robbery, and then there is the system of “those who go against me should die”. Their barbaric acts are not only common in mainland China and remote areas such as Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia but also extend to the land areas of Hong Kong and Macau.

For those sisters who are still in prison, when you see social injustice and want to say or write something, all you get is arrest and imprisonment. Petitioning for your rights or the rights of others will get you arrested and jailed as well!

A woman who is sexually harassed and brave enough to stand up for her rights will would lose in court, disappeared, or be forced to slap herself for being on TV and to deny what she said. Those who stand up for their sisters and speak out in the face of injustice will still be arrested and jailed! Even those who cry out for their husbands are inevitably convicted of “inciting subversion of country’s power”.

Over a million Uyghurs in Xinjiang were sent to “re-education camps”. Countless women have been raped and abused. Mongolian students were forced to speak Chinese exclusively. Tibetans were forced to set themselves on fire to express anger. Religious groups such as Falun Gong, Christianity, Catholicism, and Shinranism must be led by the Party and sing Party hymns. Otherwise, they will be arrested and imprisoned!

The promise of self-governance for Hong Kong was meant to be in effect for 50 years, but only 20 years passed. The law was amended to change this so Hong Kong people rose up in revolt as smoke bombs, bullets and water cannons are fired at many university campuses. Many young women were among the 10,000 or so people arrested. More than a thousand people have been disappeared, jumped from buildings, drowned and sexually assaulted, including many women. A typical example is the case of Chen Yanlin, a 17-year-old girl who was drowned nudely. Her case was closed by the court only on the grounds of “suspicious death”. Macau’s supporters were also arrested and detained to varying degrees.

In a dictatorial and patriarchal China, the sisters are subjected to double bullying. Since 1949, women have been the first to suffer from the constant human disasters caused by the Chinese Communist Party. In particular, the forced abortions over the past 30 years or so and the current policy of forced births. Chinese women’s bodies are legally controlled by the Party, and their wombs are legally dominated by the Party. When to get pregnant and have a baby and when to have an abortion have become the Party’s “top priorities”. Chinese women have lost their basic right to control their own bodies for too long!

Dear sisters, when you have suffered enough injustice, the whole world has seen you rise up and express your strong protest with your actions and words! Although you were imprisoned before your ambition was fulfilled, you used your flesh and blood and your precious freedom to batter the gates of dictatorship and awaken others who were asleep. More and more people are realizing what it means to live with dignity. Here we say the name of you who are suffering in prison at the moment. You are not alone, we stand with you.

(The following list of categories may miss someone. The relevant information is still being followed up)

Journalists, lawyers, poets and human rights activists being held in detention:

Li Yuxun, Lawyer from Beijing

Zhang Zhan, a Lawyer from Shanghai

Huang Xueqin, an independent feminist journalist from Guangdong

Liu Yanli, an online writer and member of the Independent Chinese PEN Center

Li Qiaochu, who solves the labor issues and the feminist

Poets Wang Zangwang and his wife Wang Liqin

Wang Shurong, Sichuan

Fu Wenhua, Hubei

Zhu Yufang, Jiangxi

Hu Jinqiong, Shandong

Xu Qin, Hubei

Zhang Wuzhou, Hubei

Guo Hongying, Jilin

Chen Chengxiang, Hubei

Chen Jianfang, the winner of the 4th Cao Shunli Courage Award from Shanghai

Zeng Chunzhi, Hubei

Feng Xiaomei, Jiangsu

Dong Yaoqiong, being regarded as having “mentally ill” from Hunan

Liu Li, Liaoning

Li Ronghao, Guangdong

Li Yu, Shandong

Tang Yunshu, Chongqing

Jiang Yanhong, Henan

Wu Yuxi, Hubei

Yu Jiangfan, Henan

Zhang Lanying, Tianjin

Victims of concentration camps in Xinjiang:

Gulimira Aimin

Nuer Guli, a young doctor dies in prison

Shaadaiti Bawudun

Atikaimu Ruzi, missing

Sandbar Tursun

Rahile Dawut

Gulixian Abasi

Victims of Tibetan Rights Activism:

Bankuoji, Sichuan

Yeshe Choedon, Tibet

Persecuted Falun Gong Victims:

Tian Xiangui, Jiangxi

Zhu Jia Cai, Guizhou

Song Guixiang, Shandong

Guo Ai, Hebei

Li Xue, Shandong

Xiao Yongfen, Jilin

Zhou Haiyan, Liaoning

Jin Liyan, Fujian

Hu Zhiqin, Liaoning

Sun Xi, Canadian

Sheng Jie, Liaoning

Chen Quanxiu, Hunan

Liu Xiangju, Liaoning

Xie Qing, Guangdong

Zhong Yijun, Shanghai

Zhong Xingxiu, Jiangxi

Chen Shuqin, Ningxia

Li Chenhui, Shaanxi

Yi Wenjun, Sichuan

Cao Ailan, Henan

Zhao Shuzhi, Inner Mongolia

Gao Lijuan, Tianjin

Wang Jianmin, Shandong

Xu Na, Jilin

Wang Baoyu, Jiangsu

Shi Ningyao, Liaoning

Cuiqin, Guizhou

Laigui Fang, Liaoning

Persecuted Christians:

Li Yufeng, Henan

Zhejiang Clergy

Geng Yimin, Anhui

Liang Qin, Sichuan

Pu Shunnan, Liaoning

Ju Dianhong, Yunnan

Wei Xiaomei, Guangdong

Li Chenhui, Shaanxi

Chang Yuchun, Shaanxi

Wan Hongxia, Anhui

Fu Xuanjuan, Guangxi

Representation of women victims of the National Security Law in Hong Kong:

Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee

Tonyee Chow Hang-tung

Cyd Ho Sau-lam

Denise Ho Wan-see

Chan Pui Man

Dear sisters in prison, dictatorship imprisons your bodies, but not your ideas or your souls. You have fought for yourselves and for the rights of others. Whether you have been released from prison or are still in prison, you are a group of people who are great people and have been respected by people all over the world. You are role models for Chinese women. History will always remember your names and deeds.

The Women’s Rights in China strongly demand that the Chinese government release all females who are “prisoners of conscience”! The Women’s Rights in China will be calling for international attention to issues such as the human rights of women in prison and will continue to help our sisters who have escaped from the clutches of the Party.

The Women’s Rights in China hats off to all of our sisters who are in prison, or who have been arrested, imprisoned, disappeared, or killed as “prisoners of conscience”! Prayers to your sisters and may your families be healthy and well in 2022! May you all return home safely and be reunited with your families soon!

（Below are just some photos of the sisters in prison）