Source: www.ChinaAid.org
Date: January 15, 2024
Eight years ago on January 15th, 2016, a Chinese court imposed a brutal and horrific 19-year prison sentence on Xinjiang activist Zhang Haitao.
According to his wife Li Aije, Zhang "exposed the ethnic repression policies implemented by the Chinese government in Xinjiang and spoke up for the human rights of repressed Uyghurs.”
His bold voice angered the Chinese Communist Party who sentenced him to 19 years in jail after his arrest in 2015!
Officials claimed he was "providing intelligence overseas" and "subverting state power" for taking pictures, and sending online messages and Tweets.
Your partnership and gifts to ChinaAid ensured we could help Zhang's wife Li Aije, a tireless advocate for her husband after his arrest, and her son escape China and safely land in the United States in 2017.
Can you imagine that Li was even beaten by her own relatives in China for refusing to divorce her husband?
Zhang has been brutally tortured while in prison through sleep depravation, and by being hung upside down. A 2022 letter from Zhang to his family raised questions because Zhang asked his loved ones not to visit in prison and assured them he was fed well, ending the note with "Thank you to the Party, thank you to the country, thank you to the government!”
Please keep Zhang and his family in your prayers as he unjustly sits in jail today, eight years after his sentence.
You can directly encourage Zhang by writing a letter to his prison address and let him know that you're thinking and praying for him.
Your partnership to ChinaAid's Family of Persecuted fund ensures we can continue to support and empower Zhang's wife and child in the United States, and work closely with Li to amplify and share Zhang's story and persecution to officials, lawmakers, and other diplomatic figures.
Thank you for ensuring Zhang's bold voice for Uyghur human rights is never silenced even as he sits in prison!
Serving the persecuted with you,
Bob Fu, ChinaAid President & Founder
