Report on the Meeting with Zhang Chao, a Rights Defender from Zaozhuang, Shandong, Who Has Been Charged with the Crime of Picking Quarrels and Provoking Trouble

(Reported by the Rights Defense Network Information Center) On August 5, 2026, this website learned that the lawyer hired by the family of Zhang Chao, a rights defender from Zaozhuang, Shandong, met with Zhang Chao at the Zaozhuang No. 1 Detention Center in recent days. At first, the detention center refused to allow the meeting on the grounds that the investigative authorities had not issued a written document consenting to the meeting. After repeated disputes, the meeting was eventually allowed to take place. Before this, the lawyer had gone to meet with him several times without success.

Zhang Chao said: At 7 a.m. on June 4, he sent the following content via mobile phone at the Front Gate: 1. Freedom belongs to the people; 2. Glory belongs to the people; 3. The country belongs to the people; 4. Final victory belongs to the people, and so on. At around 5 a.m. on June 5, 15–16 plainclothes officers arrested him at his residence. These 15–16 plainclothes officers were domestic-security officers from Zaozhuang. When he noticed these suspicious people appearing at his residence, he first called the police. Police officers from the Huayuan Road Police Station of the Haidian Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau and these 15–16 plainclothes officers carried out his arrest.

Zhang Chao also said: After sending the messages via mobile phone at the Front Gate at 7 a.m. on June 4, he formatted his phone and turned it off. The police used big data to track his movements, and images of him appeared on 15 surveillance cameras along the subway route he traveled. The Zaozhuang Municipal Domestic Security Detachment deployed three police vehicles and transported him to the Shanting Branch at around 10 p.m. on June 5. He was taken to the detention center at 11 p.m. on June 6. Zhang Chao is being held in Room 405 of the Zaozhuang No. 1 Detention Center. The weather is hot and humid, and there are no electric fans or air conditioning.

The case has now been delivered to the Shanting District Procuratorate of Zaozhuang City. Case officer: Officer Zhang of the Shanting Branch of the Zaozhuang Municipal Public Security Bureau, mobile number: 15964450110. Prosecutor handling the case: Zhang Ruishi, telephone: 0632-3012315.

Biography of Zhang Chao: Male, born in 1970, Buddhist name Shi Daoguo. A rights defender from Zaozhuang, Shandong, he awakened to political awareness while working in Beijing in his early years and has spent many years promoting the concept of online democracy. In 2014, he was detained for 37 days for sending warnings about the arrest of rights defenders in Beijing. He later shaved his head, became a monk, and traveled throughout the country. During his Buddhist practice and studies, he continued to promote online enlightenment and assist fellow activists who had fallen into hardship, to the extent that he was expelled whenever he found a temple at which to stay. On July 24, 2019, Zhang Chao was arrested by the Shanting Branch of the Zaozhuang Municipal Public Security Bureau and was subsequently criminally detained on suspicion of the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

On June 4, 2026, Zhang Chao went to the area outside the railings of Tiananmen Square to take photographs and posted them to his circle of friends with a poem in remembrance. In the early hours of June 5, 2026, he was taken away from Beijing by domestic-security officers from Zaozhuang, Shandong, and was criminally detained the following day. On June 18, 2026, he was formally arrested. He is currently detained at the Zaozhuang No. 1 Detention Center.

This website will continue to follow Zhang Chao’s situation.