(TibetanReview.net, Dec06’25) – A young Chinese woman studying in France and visiting her home in Changsha, Hunan province, in July before joining the School of Oriental and Asian Studies in London for further study has been learnt to be in solitary confinement for more than three months, reported the AFP Dec 6, citing her relatives.
According to them, 22-year-old Zhang Yadi is accused of “inciting division of the country”, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison or possibly more, the report said.
They have said Zhang was detained in Yunnan and later transferred to a detention centre in Changsha.
“It’s terrible… I’m lost,” the report quoted her partner Yarphel Norsang as saying. “I don’t know who to ask for help… I just want to know if she’s OK.”
Norsang, now in Germany, has called on the French government to intervene.
Diplomatic sources in Paris have told AFP they had “expressed their concerns” to China.
Zhang was to start a master’s degree in anthropology in London in September.
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Zhang went to France in 2022 to study. She met Norsang, a Tibetan exile granted French nationality, there and the two entered into a civil partnership, the report said.
Zhang began writing for a blog anonymously from their Paris apartment while learning Tibetan for a website advocating for rights in Tibet, where China stands accused of repressing religious and ethnic freedoms.
The site on which she wrote — Chinese Youth Stand For Tibet (CYST) — is inaccessible in China. It featured topics censored in China, such as the 2022 self-immolation of Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu, or the impact of major construction projects on Tibetan heritage.
“I feel a strong empathy for (the Tibetans) because they are invisible and ignored by the dominant society,” Zhang was stated to have said on a podcast this year, her voice altered to protect her identity.
But the blog Zhang wrote along with four others had come under “disproportionate” scrutiny from Chinese security services, according to its creator, Ginger Duan.
“We had very few subscribers, just a few thousand,” Ginger, now reported to be in the United States, has said.
According to Ginger, “At most, she should be reprimanded, not arrested.”
“I have already said openly that Tibet should be returned to the Tibetans, but (Zhang) never did.”
Zhang’s writings focused on promoting dialogue between ethnic groups in China, particularly between Han and Tibetan communities, rfa.org earlier reported Sep 28.
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Zhang’s friends had warned her not to go home. But she wanted to see her family and so travelled to China this summer, hoping the trip would go as smoothly as previous visits.
She visited her hometown of Changsha in central Hunan, and then went to Yunnan, a southwestern province that includes Tibetan areas, including Shangri-La.
It was there that she vanished in late July. She stopped answering calls after Jul 30, though she sent one voice note to Ginger, in which she said in a weak voice that she was in hospital.
Her relatives said they later received confirmation of her detention and transfer to a detention centre in Changsha, the AFP report added.