ZHANG Honghai

Name in Chinese: 张宏海
Sentence: 8 years in prison

Freelance writer, arrested March 13, 2001 along with XU Wei, YANG Zili, and JIN Haike, after participating in the New Youth Study Group (新青年学会), an informal gathering of individuals concerned with political and economic inequalities, government corruption and political reform, who used the internet to circulate relevant articles. Zhang was finally sentenced on May 28, 2003 to eight years in prison on charges of subversion. He is currently being held at Qiaosi Prison in Zhejiang Province.  Zhang is reportedly suffering from several medical conditions and has been ill-treated in prison.

In an article written for the Washington Post in 2004, Philip P. Pan, describes Zhang, a graduate of the Beijing Broadcasting Institute, as having "a friendly smile, but was the most emotional of the group”.

The New Youth Study Group “were college kids and recent graduates … who had come to Beijing from the provinces for an education and who enjoyed arguing about what could be done to change China and help its less fortunate.”

According to Pan, an individual who provided police with testimony that Zhang had advocated revolution now says that was merely his impression and "shouldn't be used as evidence". This individual also says the confession he signed contained statemetns he did not make.

Born in a rural village in Jinyun County in Zhejiang Province in 1973, Zhang Honghai graduated from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 2000. After graduation he worked at Beijing TV.

Learn More about ZHANG Honghai

A Study Group is Crushed in China's Grip
Read Philip P. Pan's harrowing account in the Washington Post of how the New Youth Study Group was infiltrated and broken up with the arrest of ZHANG Honghai and his colleagues.

北京“新青年学会”四君子亲属访谈　作者：刘水
 观察(Observe China):  27 April 2004, in Chinese
The respected writer Liu Shui gives an account of the first time since their arrest three years earlier that three of the four scholars from the New Youth Study Group met with family members. According to Liu Shui, the first thing the three said was, "We are innocent. This is an injustice."

Zhang Honghai's father, who is nearly 70, said, "I haven't seen my son in three years. He's changed so much I almost didn't recognise him. He is thin."