My CV
lifework
Chinese democracy & human rights activist
Vision & strengths
Building Community To Effect Domestic Change
Harnessing the energies, talents, and resources among Chinese democracy activists, rights advocates, and other concerned citizens is key to building a strong, resilient civil society and advancing the rule of law and rights protection in China.
Bridging Differences; Fundraising; Public Speaking
Proven strengths in initiating, organizing, and overseeing special projects that bring together diverse groups with disparate missions to develop and achieve shared objectives. Over a decade of demonstrated success in fundraising for Humanitarian China. Effective and experienced in speaking at diverse fora internationally, including government hearings, university conferences, rallies, and media interviews.
Professional & leadership Experience
Human Rights in China, New York, NY
Executive Director, March 2023 – present
Lead the organization in international advocacy and expanded activities to provide direct support for Chinese rights defenders in mainland China and in diaspora, including capacity building trainings on exercising fundamental rights, as a way to empower grassroots activism and counter China’s transnational repression.
Humanitarian China, San Francisco, CA
Co-founder, 2007; President, 2017– present
With a founding mission to promote a civil society and the rule of law in China and funds raised from individual donors, Humanitarian China, a non-governmental organization, provides financial and material support to about 100 Chinese political prisoners and activists and their family members annually. It organizes annual public programs to commemorate the 1989 Democracy Movement and maintains the Liberty Sculpture Museum in Arizona. It actively collaborates with other NGOs on special advocacy projects including the establishment of the China Human Rights Lawyers’ Day (July 9) to garner international support for a suppressed profession.
AXA Rosenberg Investment Management, Orinda, CA
Director of Portfolio Oversight, 2001-2017
Led model operation and investment performance monitoring for global quantitative equity investments. Extensive research on market dynamics and portfolio positioning.
Bear Stearns, New York, NY
Option Currency Trader, 1998-2001
Built options trading evaluation models, traded currency options. Designed structured currency linked derivatives.
The 1989 Democracy Movement, Beijing, china
Elected a leader of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation, the key student leadership group in the Tiananmen protests, and co-founded the “Voice of Student Movements” radio station; provided medical help to protestors on hunger strike.
Education
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, MBA, 1998
Concentrations: Analytic Finance and Accounting
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 1985-1991
Major: Physics
personal
Born in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province.
No. 5 on the 21 Most Wanted List following the Tiananmen Massacre.
Imprisoned in Qincheng Prison, Beijing, 1989-1990.
Exiled to Yangyuan, Hebei Province for “re-education,” 1990-1991.
Arrived in the U.S., 1995.
Select Activities
June Fourth-Related Activities
▪ Organized and hosted annual commemorations of the 1989 Pro-Democracy Movement and victims of the June Fourth crackdown to sustain the call for government accountability. The commemoration in 2020 was conducted via Zoom, with participants from U.S., Europe, and China. Following the event, the company suspended Zhou’s account, at the request of the Chinese government. The account was restored several days later due to international attention to the shutdown.
▪ Established and curates a private June Fourth Museum at his home in New Jersey with artifacts from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. With around 100 items available for viewing by appointment, the collection includes a tent students used; a flag with 90 some signatures of university and other institutional representatives, including the Beijing police; a blood-stained shirt warned by a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer who joined the protest and was beaten; works of art including one depicting the youngest person (age 9) killed in the Square; and mainland Chinese and Hong Kong newspapers reporting on the Tiananmen protests.
▪ Partnered with sculptor Chen Weiming in the creation and construction of Liberty Sculpture Park in Southern California, including the first ever June Fourth Monument.
Humanitarian Work
Since cofounding the NGO Humanitarian China in 2007, Zhou has led the organization in raising funds for financial and material assistance provided to hundreds of families of political prisoners (including rights lawyers and advocates, journalists, writers, labor and women’s rights activists, and members of persecuted house churches); the Tiananmen Mothers, family members of June Fourth victims; and the family of Ilham Tohti, the Uyghur economist sentenced to life imprisonment for his critical views of Chinese government policies in Xinjiang.
Humanitarian China also helps families of political prisoners and Tiananmen protesters settle in the United States, including Fang Zheng, whose legs were crushed by tanks in the military crackdown in 1989; the pregnant wife of imprisoned New Citizens Movement activist Zhao Changqing; human rights lawyers Chen Jiangang and Xiao Guozhen; and Jewher Tohti, daughter of Ilham Tohti.
Beginning in 2019, as a large-scale anti-extradition protest movement unfolded in Hong Kong, Humanitarian China expanded its aid to more than 100 Hong Kong democracy activists facing difficulties in Hong Kong and abroad.
Cultural Activities
▪ Rescued from destruction and shipped tens of thousands of books from Hong Kong which were banned after the National Security Law was imposed in June 2020, with the goal of building a library of banned books in Chinese.
▪ Commissioned a bronze bust of Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Laureate who was imprisoned for advocating for constitutional reform and died in Chinese custody, now in the permanent collection in Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art.
▪ Sponsored the creation and installation, in Taiwan and Prague, of two replicas of the “Pillar of Shame”—a sculpture by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt commemorating the lives lost in the June Fourth crackdown—after the original was forcibly removed from the University of Hong Kong campus by school authorities in October 2021.
Mentoring
Actively mentors young Chinese activists studying in the U.S. on organizing activities to promote rights and freedoms in China, and provides needed support to those facing threats and intimidation for their rights-related activities on campus.
Interviews & Profiles
Interview: Radio Taiwan International Program “Serve the People”
Radio Taiwan International, January 15, 2024
https://www.rti.org.tw/radio/programMessageView/id/147694 (English translation and transcript:
)
Interview: Voice of America Program "Talk About Current Affairs" (Chinese)
June 23, 2023
https://www.youtube.com/live/i-yrMp9GWi8?feature=shared
“International organizations call on Blinken to hold China to account for human rights; the United States and China are taking action from afar” (Chinese)
Radio Free Asia, June 16, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/kw-06162023130012.html
“Hong Kong Remembered the Tiananmen Massacre, Until It Couldn’t”
The New York Times, June 5, 2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/world/asia/tiananmen-square-massacre-china.html
“New York exhibit keeps dream of a democratic China alive – across the generations”
Radio Free Asia, June 3, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/nyc-museum-06032023094437.html
“’They want to plant fear’: Human rights activist, Rep. Gallagher talk China's transnational repression”
Spectrum News, April 26, 2023
“'Even in dark times, we must remain full of hope'”
Radio Free Asia, February 4, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/interview-former-student-leader-02042023092314.html
“Willing to Support Overseas Students and Young People: An Exclusive Interview with Zhou Fengsuo, Executive Director of Human Rights in China” (Chinese)
Radio Free Asia, January 27, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/cm-01272023095903.html
“Unrest a rare defeat for Xi Jinping: Tiananmen Square protests leader”
This Week, December 11, 2022
“A student leader who survived the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests says Xi Jinping is showing a 'rare display of weakness' by relaxing the zero-COVID policy”
Insider, December 1, 2022
"‘So much hope:’ A Tiananmen leader on China's COVID protests”
Axios, November 30, 2022
https://www.axios.com/2022/11/30/tiananmen-leader-chinas-covid-protests.
(VIDEO) “‘China’s Democratization—an Unavoidable Issue’: Interview with Zhou Fengsuo”
Human Rights in China, June 2, 2022
“China's fifth most wanted democracy advocate looks back at Tiananmen”
Index on Censorship, June 1, 2022
(VIDEO) Interview with Zhou Fengsuo, excerpted from “Chinese artist Badiucao: Drawing truth to power”
CBS 60 Minutes, December 26, 2021
https://twitter.com/60minutes/status/1553886476563189760
"‘To Commemorate is to Prove How Precious Freedom is’: Interview with ‘89 Student Leader Zhou Fengsuo on the 32nd Anniversary of June Fourth” (in simplified Chinese)
BBC News, June 4, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world-57352250
(VIDEO) “WION Exclusive: The Interview of Fengsuo Zhou | Leader of Tiananmen protests”
September 5, 2020
“Zhou Fengsuo Reflects on His Tiananmen Square Protest: 'Just Listening Brings Me to Tears'”
WBUR, On Point, June 5, 2019
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/06/05/tiananmen-square-30-years-tank-man-china
“The Tiananmen Massacre, 30 years on – Survivor Q&A: Zhou Fengsuo”
Hong Kong Free Press, May 12, 2019
https://hongkongfp.com/2019/05/12/tiananmen-massacre-30-years-survivor-qa-zhou-fengsuo/
“Exiled Rally Leader Says He Slipped Into China”
The New York Times, June 5, 2014
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/world/asia/exiled-tiananmen-protest-leader-slips-into-china.html
“Voices from Tiananmen”
South China Morning Post, June 3, 2014
https://multimedia.scmp.com/tiananmen/
“Tiananmen, 15 Years On: Where Are Some of the ‘Most Wanted’ Participants Today?”
Human Rights Watch, 2006
https://www.hrw.org/legacy/campaigns/china/scholars/t15/zhoufengsuo.htm
Testimonies
“The CCP’s Transnational Repression of Emerging Activists After the White Paper Movement”
Hearing of the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC), September 12, 2023
“Tiananmen at 30: Examining the Evolution of Repression in China”
Hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), June 4, 2019
INFO: https://www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/tiananmen-at-30-examining-the-evolution-of-repression-in-china.
VIDEO:
(at 1:09:20-1:17:05)
“Tiananmen 25 Years Later: Leaders Who Were There”
Hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, May 30, 2014
INFO: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-113hhrg88107/html/CHRG-113hhrg88107.htm
Publication
“Congress Should Investigate Elon Musk’s Business Ties with China” (co-written with Yang Jianli)
The Daily Beast, November 23, 2022
https://www.thedailybeast.com/author/fengsuo-zhou
University Address
“Tiananmen Square Organiser, Zhou Fengsuo | Full Q&A”
The Oxford Union, May 18, 2022
Social Media
https://twitter.com/ZhouFengSuo
https://www.facebook.com/fengsuo.zhou/
https://www.instagram.com/zhoufengsuo/
Quotes in the Media (2023)
On attacks against pro-democracy protestors by pro-CCP individuals at APEC in San Francisco
“The Chinese Communist Party will take up every bit of space it can in democratic societies to extend its rule and engage in state persecution.”
“Much like it did with overseas police stations, the international community needs to face up to this form of [Chinese] government control.”
Radio Free Asia, November 24, 2023
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-consulates-united-front-11222023160631.html
On the one-year anniversary of the Sitong Bridge Incident and Peng Lifa’s disappearance by the Chinese government
“[Peng Lifa] has become a legendary symbol of the Chinese people's resistance to tyranny in the era of digital totalitarianism. It was precisely because his voice spread overseas and domestically that led to the nationwide White Paper Movement, which for the first time used public opinion to force the CCP to change its absurd and cruel zero-COVID policy."
Voice of America, October 12, 2023
https://www.voachinese.com/a/in-memory-of-anniversary-of-beijing-bridge-protest-incident-20231011/7306220.html
On FBI’s arrest of two Americans for operating a secret Chinese police station in New York
“This is the first time that the Chinese dissident community feels that their grievance is heard.”
Washington Post, April 19, 2023
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/19/chinese-police-new-york-city-foreign-influence/
On the need to counter CPC’s transnational repression of young overseas Chinese
"[Transnational repression] is terrifying. Victims are often afraid to speak out out of concern for their families . . . . Chinese dissidents and students are facing a clear threat from the CPC regime, and the U.S. government must directly and actively respond to this threat.”
Radio Free Asia, March 22, 2023 (in Chinese)
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-long-arm-03262023085146.html
“I would like to appeal to overseas Chinese students and the broad overseas Chinese population: if you are facing threats, harassment, if you need to find channels of redress-- whether they be enforcement agencies, legislators, or school authorities—you can contact me. I have close contact with them and they are willing to help.”
“Current Affairs,” Voice of America, April 14, 2023 (In Chinese)
https://www.youtube.com/live/O-raQCaoIIY?feature=share
On the sentencing of Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi for “subversion of state power” on April 10, 2023
"The lack of human rights in China is a threat to the entire world. The international community must be tougher on this issue. It must not only speak out, but also deploy strong policies. It must not only condemn, but find a way to link human rights situation in China with trade. Long-term pressure from the international community will prove effective."
Radio Free Asia, April 12, 2023 (in Chinese)
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/ec-04122023034853.html/ampRFA
On Hong Kong Alliance vice-chair Chow Hang-tung, who was sentenced for refusing to turn over documents relating to the group’s activities
“Chow Hang-tung’s message is deeply moving. And her courage and spirit of insisting on the pursuit of justice are especially commendable. It is the spirit of the Tankman in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. The essence of the so-called National Security Law is of course political persecution, aimed at forcing the persecuted to abandon their dignity for the sake of survival. Because the Hong Kong Alliance has been the most influential pro-democracy movement group in Hong Kong over the past three decades, the attack on the group is to ‘mainlandize’ Hong Kong and intimate other civil society organizations."
Radio Free Asia, March 13, 2023 (in Chinese)
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/gangtai/ec-03132023071726.html
On the trials of the “Hong Kong 47” charged with “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the National Security Law for organizing and/or participating in democratic primary elections in July 2020
"It is appalling that many well-respected activists have been held for two years, presumed guilty and denied bail. It showcases the unjust and inhumane nature of the national security law."
Nikkei Asia, February 6, 2023
On Chinese tech and political blogger, Program Think, who was tried in secret and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power”
“Under the Communist Party’s ubiquitous surveillance – both online and in real life, he managed to carry on for 12 years – that is a marvelous legend in itself.”
CNN, March 29, 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/29/china/china-blogger-sentenced-program-think-intl-mic-hnk/index.html