Case History: Zhang Baocheng
On 7 July 2016 human rights defenders Messrs Zhao Changqing and Zhang Baocheng were released on bail in Beijing. On 29 June Ms Xu Caihong, Messrs Li Wei, Ma Xinli, and Liang Taiping were also released on bail.
On 31 May 2016, human rights defenders Messrs Zhao Changqing, Zhang Baocheng and Ms Xu Caihong were detained by police in Beijing. It is believed their detentions are linked to a private commemoration they held ahead of the 27th anniversary of the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing in 1989. Four other human rights defenders who attended the event remain out of contact.
Zhang Baocheng is an active participant in the New Citizens Movement, a loose collection of individuals who campaigned for greater transparency among Chinese Communist Party officials, greater equality within the education system as well as for a Constitutional Government. In 2014 he was sentenced to two years in prison because of his participation in demonstrations related to that movement.
