{"id":1678,"date":"2014-09-29T01:57:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-29T01:57:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2014-09-29T01:57:06","modified_gmt":"2014-09-29T01:57:06","slug":"daughters-of-zhang-lin-wrwf-celebrates-one-year-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/daughters-of-zhang-lin-wrwf-celebrates-one-year-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Daughters of Zhang Lin — WRWF Celebrates One Year in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Reggie<\/a>

Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, with the daughters of Zhang Lin, Anni and Ruli .\u00a0 Littlejohn and her husband have taken the sisters into their own family.\u00a0 (Photo Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers)<\/p><\/div>\n

A year ago this month, Anni and Ruli Zhang arrived in the United States.\u00a0 Ten year old Anni had to leave China because she had been detained and then denied the right to go to school.\u00a0 She is known as “China’s youngest prisoner of conscience.” \u00a0Her venerated activist father is still in jail for having helped her.\u00a0 With the help of many brave people in China and the United States, Anni and Ruli obtained safe passage to the United States.\u00a0 My husband, Robert, and I are overjoyed to welcome them into our family.\u00a0 Here is a beautiful profile of our family, published by LifeSiteNews.\u00a0 WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign is not only saving girls in China, but also around our own kitchen table.\u00a0 I would again like to thank the brave people in China — four of whom remain in detention to this day — as well as Jing Zhang of Women’s Rights in China and Rep. Chris Smith for all they did to help Anni and Lily come safely to the United States.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She prayed for years for a Chinese daughter — Now she’s raising China’s youngest political prisoner<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Kirsten Anderson<\/p>\n

(LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.S.-based human rights activist is raising China\u2019s youngest known political prisoner and her sister after the girls fled their native country, where their famous father is still imprisoned.<\/p>\n

Reggie Littlejohn, founder of Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers, which fights gendercide and forced abortion in Asia, recently told LifeSiteNews the dramatic story of the events that led to her adoption of the girls, in a video interview with Managing Director Steve Jalsevac in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Littlejohn said that Anni Zhang, 11, and her elder sister Ruli, 19, left China in September after their father, political dissident and nuclear physicist Zhang Lin, was once again imprisoned for speaking out against the Communist government.\u00a0 He had already spent 13 years behind bars for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square [pro-democracy movement] of 1989, and for publishing comments critical of the Chinese government online.<\/p>\n

Zhang\u2019s most recent imprisonment came after Anni \u2013 then ten years old \u2013 was kidnapped from her school by the authorities and detained overnight without food, water, a toilet, or even a blanket.\u00a0 After she was returned to her father, she was told that she would not be allowed to attend school anymore because of her father\u2019s pro-democracy activism.<\/p>\n

Undaunted, her father led protests against the school and the Communist Party, demanding they give his daughter an education.\u00a0 But during the protests, they were both detained by police and subsequently placed on house arrest.\u00a0 They were able to escape last summer, but Chinese authorities caught up to them in July and once again arrested them.\u00a0 When Zhang realized he would be returning to prison, he reached out to the international activist community for help.\u00a0 He wanted to get Anni out of the country, as it was clear she would never be able to live a normal life in China.<\/p>\n

Zhang is \u201cterribly courageous,\u201d Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.\u00a0 \u201cHe has been tortured horribly in jail.\u00a0 For example, his older daughter Ruli has said that what the Chinese Communist Party will do is, they will put him in a cell with people with highly infectious fatal diseases, and murderers, and \u2026 they\u2019ll tell the murderers, \u2018Do whatever you want,\u2019 and he has been beaten within an inch of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Littlejohn said the injuries Zhang has suffered in prison are so severe that since Anni was about eight years old, she was the one taking care of her father \u2013 cooking, cleaning and doing the household shopping.\u00a0 (Anni\u2019s mother divorced Zhang and left the family in 2011.)<\/p>\n

According to Littlejohn, the government\u2019s treatment of little Anni \u2013 detaining her, placing her under house arrest, and denying her an education \u2013 are \u201ctypical\u201d tactics the Communist Party uses to try to silence dissidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did their best to silence Zhang Lin through incarceration and torture and denial of medical treatment, [but] they could not silence him,\u201d Littlejohn said.\u00a0 \u201cSo then they go after his kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Littlejohn first met the Zhang family in 2013 during the protests at Anni\u2019s school.\u00a0 Anni and her father were interviewed for Boxun Radio at the same time as Littlejohn was being interviewed via satellite link.\u00a0 During the broadcast, Littlejohn said, \u201cZhang Lin gave a fiery speech, Anni gave a fiery speech, I gave a fiery speech, and at the end of it, the interviewer said, \u2018Would you and Anni like to speak to each other?\u00a0 You\u2019re a women\u2019s rights activist in the United States; she\u2019s an up-and-coming women\u2019s rights activist in China; so of course we said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

Anni and Ruli Zhang in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, 2013 (Photo Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI was able to say to her, \u2018Anni, I am so impressed with you.\u00a0 I\u2019m impressed with your courage, I\u2019m impressed with your intelligence, with your articulateness, with your poise; you know, that at ten years old you have the wherewithal to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party.\u00a0 If you would remain true, if you can remain humble, if you could remain pure, you can help lead your people to freedom.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our first conversation,\u201d Littlejohn said.\u00a0 \u201cOur first conversation was over national radio.\u201d\u00a0 At the time, Littlejohn had no idea that Anni would soon be living in her home, being raised as her daughter.<\/p>\n

It was in August that Zhang Lin was able to get a message out to Littlejohn saying he wanted Anni to go to the United States.\u00a0 He asked Littlejohn to find a safe place for the little girl to live, where she could get an education and live a normal life, away from the constant surveillance and threats of the Communist Party.\u00a0 Otherwise, he worried Anni might end up in a state-run orphanage.<\/p>\n

Little did Zhang know that his request was an answer to ten years of Littlejohn\u2019s prayers \u2013 her work with Chinese girls had given her a strong desire to parent one, but she knew that the Chinese government would never approve her request for adoption because of her human rights activism.<\/p>\n

Littlejohn has devoted her life to fighting for women and girls in Asia. As a lawyer in the early 1990s, she represented a client who sought asylum in the United States after undergoing a forced sterilization in China.\u00a0 Littlejohn was so shocked to learn about the widespread human rights violations targeting Asian women that she founded Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI [asked Zhang], \u2018Well, where is she going to go?\u2019 and [Zhang said] \u2018We don\u2019t know.\u2019\u00a0 So I said, \u2018Let me call my husband,\u2019\u201d Littlejohn recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband is the most awesome man in the world,\u201d she added.\u00a0 \u201cIt was just a phone call.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even have to sit him down on the couch and say, \u2018Honey, there\u2019s a girl in China,\u2019 you know, I just said, \u2018Rob, remember Anni?\u00a0 She needs to come to the United States; she needs a place to stay,\u2019 and there was, like, this pause, and he said \u2026 \u2018Is this the daughter from China that you\u2019ve wanted for so many years, for ten years?\u2019 And I said, \u2018I think so.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Littlejohn and her husband agreed to take the little girl in, so activists in China went to work smuggling the girl and her sister out of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long process to get [Anni] out of China and into the United States,\u201d Littlejohn said.\u00a0 \u201cThere are four people currently detained in China because they helped Anni [escape]. Four people are in jail right now because they helped Anni.\u00a0 So the Chinese Communist Party let her go, but they made sure it was very, very costly.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was only after the girls\u2019 arrival in the U.S. that Littlejohn learned that Anni \u2013 as the second child fathered by Zhang Lin \u2013 was almost a victim of China\u2019s One-Child Policy \u2013 the same policy she has dedicated her life to destroying.<\/p>\n

\"(Photo<\/a>

(Photo Credit: Women’s Rights Without Frontiers)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThe family planning police had come after [Anni\u2019s] mother and had been pressuring her mother to abort her, to the extent that her mother was almost going crazy with the constant, constant, constant pressure,\u201d Littlejohn said.\u00a0 \u201cHer mother had to hide. Zhang Lin was able to finally get permission for Anni to be born, but Anni could have been one of the 400 million lives that have been prevented by the One-Child Policy \u2026 as far as I\u2019m concerned, every one of those lives that was prevented could have been Anni, could have been my own daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the girls\u2019 arrival in the U.S., they have been focused on learning English and acclimating to their new lives.\u00a0 Anni has taken a liking to hamburgers, and enjoys playing the piano.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Ruli has started to speak out more about the human rights violations her family has endured, penning an open letter to world leaders on the recent 25th anniversary of Tiananmen Square in which she slammed the Chinese government for \u201cdoing their utmost to persecute people, even reaching their evil claws to a ten-year-old child,\u201d and divulging more details about the abuse their father endured at the hands of the Communist Party.<\/p>\n

It is Littlejohn\u2019s hope that Anni will someday follow in both her families\u2019 footsteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnni has the personality \u2026 of a leader,\u201d Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.\u00a0 \u201cShe is very charismatic, [and has a] very strong personality. \u2026 [She is] smart like her father and a survivor of the One-Child Policy, and someday I would love to see her take over the reins of Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

View original article at LifeSiteNews.com: http:\/\/www.lifesitenews.com\/news\/she-prayed-for-years-for-a-chinese-daughter-now-shes-raising-chinas-younges<\/a><\/p>\n

Learn more about WRWF’s “Save a Girl” Campaign:
\nhttp:\/\/womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year ago this month, Anni and Ruli Zhang arrived in the United States.\u00a0 Ten year old Anni had to leave China because she had been detained and then denied the right to go to school.\u00a0 She is known as … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1,138,139,150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-uncategorized","category-zhang-anni","category-zhang-lin","category-zhang-ruli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}