(TibetanReview.net, Sep23’25) – For advocating dialogue to resolve the issue of Tibet, China has detained an overseas Chinese student while visiting home in July this year and she may now be convicted for separatism, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch Sep 23.
Chinese authorities should immediately and unconditionally release Zhang Yadi, an advocate for Tibetan rights who had been an international student in France. If convicted under article 103(2) of China’s Criminal Law, which prohibits “inciting others to split the country and undermine national unity,” she faces up to 5 years in prison, or up to 15 if found to be a ringleader, the group said.
“The Chinese authorities are threatening to imprison 22-year-old student-activist Zhang Yadi for years for speaking out against racial injustice and peacefully exercising her rights like many young people around the world,” Yalkun Uluyol, the group’s China researcher, has said.
“The authorities seem fearful of people building bridges across ethnic lines that deviate from the official Chinese Communist Party line.”
Zhang is part of Chinese Youth Stand for Tibet, which emerged after the Nov 2022 White Paper Protests, when protesters held up blank sheets of paper to oppose Beijing’s draconian Zero-Covid policy. The group publishes articles on Substack, an ad-free platform for discovering, reading, and subscribing to newsletters, podcasts, and other content from creators and independent writers. Its aim is to “foster a deeper understanding of Tibetan culture within Chinese-speaking communities, challenge and deconstruct Han chauvinism, and address ethnic conflicts and prejudice.”
Recent posts reportedly include profiles of a Tibetan musician and a female entrepreneur, a letter from a mainland Chinese reader, and writings in Chinese that provide Tibetan perspectives on Tibet.
Zhang, who is fluent in Chinese, French, Tibetan, and English, was studying at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESPC Business School) in Paris. She had obtained a scholarship to begin graduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London in September, the group said.
Regarding Zhang’s activism, the group noted that some Chinese international students had become concerned about severe repression in Tibet and Xinjiang after experiencing racism in their host countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, and were inspired by racial and social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter in the United States.
However, Beijing subjects these students to surveillance, harassment, and other forms of transnational repression. They face the risk of arbitrary detention and prosecution when they return home, as in Zhang’s.
The group has called on concerned governments to publicly raise Zhang’s case with the Chinese government and press for her immediate and unconditional release. It urged the French government to raise her prosecution as interfering in the rights to freedom of expression and association of Chinese students who are studying in France. It also called on the British government to seek Zhang’s immediate release so that she can begin her studies in England.