Credit China Aid Association

NEWS PROVIDED BY
China Aid Association
Dec. 9, 2024

MIDLAND, Texas, Dec. 9, 2024 /Standard Newswire/ -- China Aid Association is pleased to announce Professor Wu Yanan as the winner of the Lin Zhao Freedom Award 2024 from a group of four qualified nominations for her outspoken condemnation of the Chinese Communist Party's suppression of student protests.

An associate professor of philosophy at Nankai University, Wu publicly criticized her employer for detaining and persecuting students who participated in protests sparked by the tragic fire in Urumqi in 2022. These protests called for an end to strict lockdown measures, which Wu described as oppressive. In her online posts, she urged the university to protect its students from political retaliation, emphasizing the need for the institution to uphold basic human rights.

Wu expressed her frustration with the university's actions, asking, "Isn't it the school's duty to protect the students?! … Who gives you the right to silence our voices of truth?!"

After posting a message in solidarity with the victims of the fire, Wu was summoned by Nankai University officials, who demanded she delete her comments. In a move that raised serious concerns, Wu was subsequently detained under the false pretext of mental illness. Her social media accounts were wiped clean following her disappearance, and her family appeared to have been pressured by authorities to comply with their demands.

The last posts on Wu's account have claimed that she is suffering from mental health issues, but many believe these statements were coerced under duress.

Professor Wu was violently abducted by government officials on December 14, 2022. Held for some time at Tianjin Sheng'an Hospital, a psychiatric facility, her current status remains unknown.

This incident highlights growing concerns about the Chinese government's increasing use of psychiatric detention as a tool of political repression. The case of Wu Yanan serves as yet another example of the harsh consequences faced by those who speak out against the regime's policies and the suppression of dissent.

The Lin Zhao Freedom Award is awarded in honor of Lin Zhao, a Chinese Christian who was murdered for her dissent against the Communist Party. An outspoken author and poet, she was classified as a rightist in 1958 four years after enrolling at Beijing University. In October 1960, she was arrested for participating in the planning of the underground publication "Xinghuo/Spark." During her time imprisoned in the Tilanqiao Prison, she used her blood to write a book against then-Chairman Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party's "Tyranny Enslavement." On April 29, 1968, Lin Zhao was sentenced to death, and the officials shot her on the same day. In 1981, the Shanghai Higher People's Court posthumously revoked the ruling and fully acquitted her.

"Wu Yanan is a rare representation of a Chinese female academic, who spoke out against injustices that Uyghurs faced during the Urumqi fire," said Zubayra Shamseden, the Chinese Outreach Coordinator for the Uyghur Human Rights Project and member of the Lin Zhao Freedom Award selection committee, "In China, let alone a Chinese intellectual speak out against government in support of suppressed groups like Uyghurs, even standing against their own rights within the Chinese society takes a great courage. Wu Yanan's accusation of having 'mental illness' for her of doing the right thing as a Han Chinese academic in support of other human beings outside her own ethnicity is the future of how China should look. The peace and prosperity in fact originate from this kind of human attachment, not by force or suppression."

Dr. Sophie Richardson, Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, from the selection committee commented, "Professor Wu Yanan's 'crime' was to defend students' and other peaceful protesters' rights to free speech. That authorities have tried to silence her through arbitrary detention in a medical facility speaks volumes about their brutality."

"Professor Wu exemplifies the steadfast, fearless advocacy of Lin Zhao. The world is watching and will continue to speak out with 'our voices of truth' in honor of Wu and her devotion to her students and a free China," Dr. Bob Fu, Founder and President of ChinaAid, said of the award winner. He continued, "ChinaAid and our partners will continue to push for information on her location, release, and justice to be done."

ChinaAid and the selection committee were unable to get in contact with her family. Thus, the prize will remain unrewarded until she is free or her family are able to speak up without fear of reprisal.

SOURCE China Aid Association

Contact: Media@ChinaAid.org