Source: www.csw.org.uk
Date: Septembar 27, 2025
Once again, Chinese human rights defender Zhang Zhan has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Once again, the charges against her are completely unfounded – intended to silence her.
So once again, we will not stay silent. Please raise your voices in prayer for her freedom and safety.
Who is Zhang Zhan?
Many of you will remember the courage of Zhang Zhan who said:
‘We should seek the truth and seek it at all costs. Truth has always been the most expensive thing in the world.’
Inspired by her Christian faith, the citizen journalist bravely travelled to Wuhan in 2020 to report on the COVID-19 pandemic. She paid with her freedom – serving a four-year sentence, during which she staged a hunger strike and became critically ill.
Zhang Zhan completed her sentence last year and should have been able to enjoy her freedom in peace. But this was not the case.
Why was she re-detained?
Just months after leaving prison, Zhang Zhan was unjustly detained again, clearly for continuing to advocate for human rights. The charges against her – ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ – are routinely used to silence human rights defenders in China.
She was detained on 28 August 2024 in her hometown, having travelled to a neighbouring province to help a young pro-democracy activist find legal representation.
Zhang Zhan awaited trial for over a year, and news of her situation was scarce. Then it emerged that she had been tried on 19 September 2025 and sentenced to four years in prison once again. This is an identical sentence to the one she has already served, on identical charges.
How can we pray?
- Please pray for Zhang Zhan’s immediate and unconditional release.
- Ask God to sustain her physically, mentally and spiritually. While little is known about her current condition, we do know that she began a hunger strike on 25 January 2025 in protest of her detention, and was force-fed at the detention centre.
- Pray for the protection of her family and lawyer who have reportedly been harassed and intimidated.
- Pray boldly that the Chinese authorities will be held to account for their persistent violations of human rights. Pray that they would stop targeting those like Zhang Zhan, who stand up for what is right.
‘My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.’
(Psalm 73:26)