Chinese dissident’s, Zhang Lin, daughters escape from China

Translated by: Wendy Mei and Anna Li

WRIC Chen LiQun reports：

Women’s Rights in China(WRIC) in conjunction with Women’s Rights Without Frontiers (WRWF) and the Committee of US International Broadcasting (CUSIB) are three organizations responsible for human intervention and positive planning. Zhang Lin’s two daughters, Zhang An Ni and her sister, Zhang Ru Li, finally escaped out of China. As of yesterday (September 7), they safely landed in California.

This year in March and April, internet users and lawyers from all around the country and a total of couple hundreds people helped voiced solidarity for An Ni. An Ni was forced out of school and detained for 20 hours. Finally, the police forcefully cleared the scene and arrested more than a dozen of activists and put them into detention, dozens of people were also beaten and harassed. A few months later, Zhang was detained again afterward. Meanwhile, 10 years old daughter An Ni suffers the threat of being sent to the orphanage. Since her parents were divorced, she lived with her father who entered jail again, An Ni faced extreme difficulties of living and learning. The Women Right’s organization, whose headquarter is in New York, has been concerned about An Ni’s schooling problem. Founder of WRIC, Zhang Jing, decided to help safeguard the rights of the girls, from mid-June she contacted CUSIB founder ANN Noonan and WRWF founder Reggie Littlejohn, who are also concern about democracy and human right’s issues in China. With all their efforts, An Ni Zhang came to America for education with Reggie Littlejohn as her guardian. Three of them worked separately. First, they got the custody rights from Zhang Lin and his ex-wife, this solved the problem of minor child custody and other legal issue. Secondly, contact all forces, including several members of Congress to help write a letter to relelated departments to petition.School starts in early September, Annie was finally allowed to come to United States accompanied by her sister. Both of them got their visa.

We solved the issued of An Ni’s life, learning and visa, but the major problem is how to prevent the Chinese police and security from blocking An Ni to get out of China. Women’s Rights in China volunteer Yao Cheng, Zhang’s friend, also played a key role. From the sisters’ departure from Anhui to Nanjing and the transfer to Shanghai instead of going straight to United States, on each step of the operation, Sun Lin’s (activist), Hu Jia’s and others’ performance was outstanding; they did their best on their part of the operation. Even if Yao Cheng’s important documents were confiscated by police in a hotel, two sisters’ passports were already been safely transferred.

An Ni’s mother take the role of Yao Cheng later, she obeyed Jing Zhang’s instructions. From filling in the application to going on the plane, a total of three days, the United States Consulate officials personally escort them to enter the consular formalities, then escorted to the airport, until a safe takeoff.

After the rescue of the sisters, An Ni’s enrollment rights issue ended. Yao Chang exchanged his freedom for the freedom of the children’s new life. He paid a heavy price but it is valuable and significant. the entire rescue process shows the glory of humanity, on the other hand, this will become an example of Chinese citizens’ movement. Under fair, reasonable, and legitimate premise, gather forces, sincere cooperation, good practical work, strongly protest, not giving up, trying to help the descendants of human rights and democratic freedoms of people with minimal social costs, maximize social benefits, change the unjust social system.

Jing Zhang who has been working for three months for the freedom of Annie said “A ten year old girl was deprived of the right of education and detained because her father is dissidents was inhuman, one of the most absurd scandal. How can Annie have her “Chinese dream” which is now impressed by this “Chinese nightmare.” She became the youngest Chinese exile who didn’t have the care of her parents who are exiles.”

Jing Zhang said “Reggie Littlejohn and her husband welcome An Ni with open arms and was really enthusiastic. Before they pick up the sisters from the airport, they had prepared very spacious room for each of them and health insurance. After some rest and familiarity of the environment, the sisters went to the restaurant and they helped them buy pajamas, clothes and daily necessities. Due to the language barrier, Reggie Littlejohn called Jing Zhang to help with simple translation. On the phone Reggie Littlejohn said: “ The girls says they are not hungry, you have to tell them they must eat something. I saw that when they were looking at the menu they were staring at the price. Tell them don’t mind the price, hand gesture is fine for communication.”

On the behalf of Women’s rights in China, Zhang Jing thanks all the people in China and America who had help An Ni. An Ni is now safe, we wish her to grow up happily and healthy in this land of freedom, United States. Meanwhile, WRIC will continue to focus on women’s rights. Yao Cheng and Zhang Lin continue to solidarity with the Chinese government.

Asia Freedom Radio Reports:

http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/ml-09072013224415.html