{"id":2324,"date":"2016-09-19T18:10:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T18:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=2324"},"modified":"2016-09-19T18:10:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T18:10:29","slug":"activist-zhang-lin-released-from-prison-speaks-with-daughters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/activist-zhang-lin-released-from-prison-speaks-with-daughters\/","title":{"rendered":"Activist Zhang Lin released from prison, speaks with daughters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anni

Anhui, China: Zhang Lin and his daughter Anni, before his arrest in 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

Veteran pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin has been released from prison early, and spoke for the first time in three years with his daughters, Anni and Ruli, on Friday, September 9, at the San Jose home of Reggie Littlejohn and her husband, Robert.<\/p>\n

Littlejohn, president of Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers<\/a>, described the conversation:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke for about an hour and it was a very emotional conversation.\u00a0\u00a0 At first, Anni and Ruli spoke with their father alone, then my husband \u00a0and I joined the conversation.\u00a0 There were times when everyone was in tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cZhang Lin looks great \u2013 much better than I expected him to look after such a lengthy prison sentence.\u00a0 He said that he feels healthy – with the exception of wanting some work done on his teeth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him how the prison guards had treated him and he said, \u2018Actually, pretty friendly.\u2019\u00a0 He wants to thank the Chinese government and the United States government, as well as U.S. friends, for all their help.\u00a0\u00a0 He expressed intense gratitude to my husband and me for taking care of his daughters for the years he was in prison \u2013 but we told him it has been an honor to help him in this way, and a pleasure to welcome his lovely daughters into our family.<\/p>\n

\u201cZhang said he was escorted directly from the prison to an apartment procured for him by the Police.\u00a0\u00a0 He showed us his apartment and it looks large and clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 24 days, he cannot give interviews, travel outside Bengbu, or apply for a passport.<\/p>\n

\"San

San Francisco, CA: Anni and Lily Zhang, with Reggie Littlejohn, upon their arrival in the United States, September 7, 2013<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMuch of the conversation focused on the many accomplishments of his daughters.\u00a0 September 7 was the three-year anniversary of their arrival in the United States.\u00a0 Zhang said he is extremely proud of both of his daughters.\u00a0 His 22-year-old daughter, Ruli, lived with my husband and me for 18 months, but has now achieved complete independence.\u00a0 She has learned to drive, gotten a good job doing real estate, and has her own apartment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, Anni, now 13, has gone from speaking no English and playing no piano to being the top student in her 7th<\/sup> grade class last year, and winning a competition to play in Carnegie Hall in December.\u00a0 \u00a0Like her father, she is especially brilliant at math and science.<\/p>\n

\u201cZhang Lin says that one of the first things he did upon his release from prison was go to the local McDonald\u2019s and get an Egg McMuffin, which he enjoyed greatly, especially the cheese.<\/p>\n

\u201cZhang Lin misses his daughters and would like to come to the United States as soon as possible.\u00a0 First, however, he needs to obtain a passport and visa.\u00a0 He said that he really wants to be at Carnegie Hall when Anni performs, and hopefully will come to the United States before that.<\/p>\n

Anni said, \u201cI miss my Dad and really hope that he will be able to be with me when I perform at Carnegie Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruli said, \u201cI am delighted that my father is out of prison and that he was treated so well.\u00a0 I hope he will come to California soon to visit us, so that we can go out to McDonald\u2019s and get Egg McMuffins together!\u201d<\/p>\n

Littlejohn stated, \u201cI would like to thank prominent American businessman and human rights activist John Kamm,<\/a> who has been working vigorously on Zhang Lin\u2019s case for twenty years.\u00a0 He \u00a0intervened on Zhang\u2019s behalf during a trip to Beijing in January of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhang Lin has been jailed four times for his pro-democracy activism, beginning with the Tiananmen Square movement in 1989, for a total of 13 years behind bars.\u00a0 He was detained on July 19, 2013 for protesting authorities\u2019 refusal to allow his daughter Anni, then ten years old, to attend school.\u00a0 Originally scheduled to be released on January 18, 2017, his sentence was reduced for good behavior.<\/p>\n

Littlejohn concluded, \u201cZhang Lin, his daughters and I are grateful to the Chinese authorities for treating him so well in prison and releasing him early.\u00a0 We all hope that he will be granted a passport and visa in time for him to see Anni perform at Carnegie Hall in December.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Veteran pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin has been released from prison early, and spoke for the first time in three years with his daughters, Anni and Ruli, on Friday, September 9, at the San Jose home of Reggie Littlejohn and her … 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":[20,1,55,138,139,150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-uncategorized","category-womens-rights-without-frontiers","category-zhang-anni","category-zhang-lin","category-zhang-ruli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324","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=2324"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2330,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2324\/revisions\/2330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}