Ran Chongbi
Ran Chongbi has worked in defence of human rights since 2008, when she first traveled to Beijing as a petitioner. Since then, she has been involved in citizen movements and human rights activism, leading street demonstrations and picketing activities in China’s capital. Among other issues, she has campaigned for upholding China’s constitutional rights and for transparency in disclosing government assets.
Human rights defenders in China work in an extremely hostile environment and under President Xi Jinping they have seen the space in which to operate further restricted. Chinese HRDs are active in many spheres, and they include lawyers, journalists, academics, transparency campaigners, housing and land rights activists, bloggers, writers, HIV/AIDS activists and those promoting the rights of ethnic minorities. Regardless of the issues they work on, HRDs who highlight abuses, challenge the authorities or network to support detained colleagues all face reprisals from the government. These range from almost daily harassment and intimidation of family members to detentions, disappearances, torture and imprisonment.
