Lin Zhao

Lin Zhao (23 January 1932 – 29 April 1968), born Peng Lingzhao (彭令昭), was a prominent Chinese dissident who was imprisoned and later executed by the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution for her criticism of Mao Zedong's policies.

She is widely considered to be a martyr and exemplar for Chinese and other Christians, like the Chinese church leader and teacher Watchman Nee.

Peng Lingzhao was born to a prominent family in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

By age 16, she had joined an underground Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cell and was writing articles criticizing the corruption of the Nationalist government under the pen name Lin Zhao.

Three months before the CCP took power in mainland China, she ran away from home in order to attend a journalism school run by the CCP.

During her tenure, she was assigned to work in a group to administer land reform in the countryside, where she witnessed the torture and violent deaths of landlords as justified by the principle of class struggle.

Lin later enrolled in the Chinese literature department at Peking University where she was an editor of the school paper Honglou (The Red Building) which met in her dorm room.

During the Hundred Flowers Movement of 1956-1957, intellectuals such as herself were encouraged to criticize the CCP, but were later punished for doing so.

When Lin's friends who were part of the Red Building, Zhang Yuanxun and Shen Zeyi published a poem on a poster "This is the Time" which called for open dialogue towards reform, this opened debate at the university; the two also founded a short lived (23 days) magazine called "The Square" to talk about these ideas.

During this time Lin Zhao published two poems, "It is Time" and "Party I Call out to You", which expressed faith in the Communist Party, but her disaffection with communists who had never "borne the heavy burden of discrimination, slight, and suspicion".

When Zhang Yuanxun was forced to endure a debate that was turning into a struggle session, Lin stood on top of a table and dressed down the mob saying "What kind of meeting are we having tonight? Is it a debate or a condemnation? It should not be a condemnation! We don't need to condemn anyone."

Though Lin had criticized Zhang before herself, she did not feel condemning fellow communists was right.

In response to her friendship with members of The Square and defense of civil debate, Lin Zhao was branded a rightist in the Anti-Rightist Campaign which started in July 1957.

She was the only rightist who refused to criticize and insisted she had done no wrong.

As a result of being persecuted for this, Lin started to become a dissident.

During 1958, Lin was ordered to perform menial tasks for the university, including killing mosquitoes as part of the Four Pests Campaign and cataloguing old newspapers for the reference library of the university's journalism department.

There she met a fellow rightist Gan Cui, who in 1959 asked permission (as was required at the time) to marry Lin Zhao and be assigned to a job near with her after his graduation.

He was instead sent to Talimu Forth Farm, Xinjiang, to a reform through labor camp for the next 20 years, to break the couple up.

Gan visited Lin in Shanghai for a week, and then got on the bus to Xinjiang; they never saw each other again.

In late 1959 while on medical parole in Shanghai, she met Zhang Chunyuan, a history student and People's Liberation Army veteran.

Zhang Chunyan was a leader of the Lanzhou University Rightist Counter-Revolutionary Clique who had traveled from his exile in Tianshui, Gansu to recruit Lin after one of the Cliques members got ahold of her work through his sister, a fellow rightist from Peking University.

He had previously unsuccessfully tried to contact members of the Square, but they were denounced before he could establish contact.

After reading "Song of the Seagull" he had decided to recruit Lin Zhao to the group and was ecstatic to receive from Lin Zhao some draft copies of her works to publish in the underground magazine he was working on Spark Fire.

Zhang, along with a fellow Clique member Gu Yan, discussed many issues with Lin Zhao before Zhang returned to Gansu.

It was during these talks that Lin Zhao discovered from the firsthand accounts by Zhang the starvation and cannibalism that was happening as a result of the devastation in Gansu Province, about where 1 in 3 of the villagers around Tianshui had died and Zhang had seen human flesh for sale.

A fellow Peking University Rightist, Lui Faqing had been sent to Gansu, and was starving to death.

Lin Zhao having learned of the situation there, sent 35 Jin (about 40lb) of grain ration coupons to him, saving his life.

May 1960 was the beginning of the end for the Lanzhou Clique, Tan Chanxue, Zhang Chenyuan's girlfriend, and a core member of the group was arrested trying to escape to Hong Kong.

Zhang tried to free her using a fake Public Security ID, but was captured in the process.

In late September, some 30 members of the Clique were rounded up in Wushan County, along with the local deputy secretary of the Communist Party Committee and the party secretary of the Chengguan People's Commune, Du Yinghua, who had been in communication with Zhang Chenyuan, and supported the Clique.

On 24 October, Lin Zhao was arrested in Suzhou.

On 23 November 1960 her father.

Peng Guoyan, overcome with grief for his daughter's fate, swallowed rat poison and died.

Lin Zhao was imprisoned in Shanghai No. 2 Detention house.

In August 1961, Zhang Chenyuan, had been able to escape, and made his way to Shanghai, he circled her prison twice as a token of respect for Lin Zhao.

He was arrested again 6 September 1961.

After Zhang ChenYuan escaped, in August 1961 the prison tried to parole Lin Zhao due to her tuberculosis in order to use her as bait to capture Zhang.

Lin Zhao refused parole and treatment.

In March 1962, she was granted and accepted parole due both her tuberculosis and to a softening of her views somewhat due to the ending of the Great Leap Forward and the 9th Plenary Session of the 8th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, where economic policy was being changed to prevent starvation.

He and Party Secretary, Du Yinghua, were executed 22 March 1970 for attempting to communicate with each other, as well as engaging in counter-revolutionary activities while in prison.