The two daughters of Chinese dissident Zhang Lin, including Anni Zhang, who at 10 years old became known as “China’s youngest prisoner of conscience,” have been granted political asylum in the United States.
The announcement was made Wednesday, in conjunction with recognition of International Human Rights Day, by Reggie Littlejohn, president of the Womens Rights Without Frontiers organization, which has been fighting China’s deadly one-child policy for years.
The organization said it “is delighted to announce that Anni and Ruli (Lily) Zhang have been granted political asylum in the United States.”
“Detained overnight as a 10-year-old, Anni is known as ‘China’s youngest prisoner of conscience.’ She and her older sister, Ruli, are the daughters of veteran activist Zhang Lin, who is currently serving a three-and-a-half year jail sentence for standing up for Anni’s right to go to school,” WRWF said.
“With the help of brave activists in China and the U.S., WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn was able to secure safe passage to the U.S. for the girls. She and her husband Robert have taken the girls into their home and are raising them as their own daughters.”
Littlejohn expressed gratitude for the work of attorney Jessica Kim and blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who wrote a letter on behalf of the girls’ asylum case.
“Rob and I enjoy being the American parents of Anni and Ruli, and we are very proud of them. Both girls have made an astonishing transition to life in the United States. At home, we have them on a program of learning 50 English words a day. This may seem like a lot, but they are extremely smart and have been keeping pace without a problem,” she said.
“Anni has gone from knowing no English at all when she arrived in the U.S. to being an honor student in just one year! Like her father, she is especially strong in math and science. She has gone from just beginning piano to being almost ready to compete in piano as well. She learned to ride a bike in two days.”
Littlejohn said Ruli has gone from knowing almost no English to passing the GED High School Equivalency test in English. She now has a job, is learning to drive and plans to go to college when her English is strong enough.
“It is a great honor to be able to help a hero like Zhang Lin by caring for his daughters,” she said. “He has given up everything for freedom and democracy in China and is now on his fourth jail sentence. It is a travesty that he is in jail simply for standing up for his daughter’s right to go to school.”
The two sisters previously sent a letter to President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping asking for help for their father.
With no results, they later expanded their plea. In an open letter released through WRWF, they asked world leaders to intervene.
On Wednesday, the statement from WRWF explained there is still high concern for the girls’ father.
“First of all, they are outraged by the injustice done him, as he has done nothing wrong. In addition, their father has been moved from a jail in his home town, where his elderly parents could visit him, to a city several hours away, where his parents will not be able to visit often. If family members do not bring money to the jail for food, he will be fed only a thin, rice gruel with an ounce of salty vegetable. WRWF is sending money to Zhang Lin’s parents on his behalf, but if his parents cannot visit him, we have no means of getting the money to the jail to ensure that he can eat properly. His health is delicate, and we are worried that if he has to subsist on gruel, his health will break down.”
The group said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., was key to bringing the girls to the U.S., and there still are three activists, Yao Cheng, Zhou Weilin and Li Huaping, who are jailed for “helping Anni.”
Littlejohn earlier described Zhang as a “courageous activist” who “has done nothing wrong by standing up for the right of his young daughter Anni to go to school.”
The girls in a letter translated from Chinese explained that they do not believe their father did anything wrong.
Amnesty International reported that in February 2013, police in Hefei, the capital of the eastern Anhui province, took Anni from school and detained her.
At the age of 10, she was whisked away and grilled by police, and was deprived of food and water for 20 hours.
Littlejohn wrote in a Web posting that the case highlights the “bold contempt for the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal persecution of the children of dissidents.”
She said at the time that the decision by China to arrest and interrogate young children amounts to “state-sponsored child abuse.”
China Aid Association, which previously publicized the “persecution of the Zhang family” through an online petition, said Zhang, a veteran of the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Anhui, is suspected of being involved in the “New Citizens’ Movement.”
