Zhang Chao (张超), monastic name Shi Daoguo (释道果)
Zhang Chao, known in monastic life as Shi Daoguo (释道果), is a Buddhist monk from Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, who was taken away by police on June 5, 2026, one day after he quietly commemorated the Tiananmen anniversary in Beijing. His whereabouts have not been publicly confirmed since.
Born in 1970, Zhang spent his youth in Shandong and later worked in Beijing, where he became active in online discussions about civic responsibility. According to the Chinese rights-reporting network 权利运动/维权网, he was detained for 37 days in 2014 after warning petitioners in Beijing that police were conducting searches. He later shaved his head and entered monastic life, traveling from temple to temple to study Buddhism. During those years he continued writing about democratic ideas online and helping fellow detainees; temples that took him in were pressured to expel him, and he was repeatedly ordered to leave monasteries, including in Zhejiang and Jiangxi, because he could not obtain recognition from the state-controlled Buddhist Association.
In July 2019, police in Zaozhuang detained him on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.” Reporting by the independent outlet Bitter Winter says he was later sentenced on that charge. He told interviewers that he had been active on overseas social media and was preparing to travel abroad when police intervened; his passport was never renewed.
On June 4, 2026, Zhang went to Tiananmen Square, took a photograph, and posted it with a short poem of remembrance to his social media account. The post was soon deleted. Before dawn on June 5, officers from the Zaozhuang branch of the domestic-security police detained him and took him from Beijing. Friends and supporters have had no confirmed information about his condition since. The rights-reporting network described him as unreachable and in a state of enforced disappearance. The 维权网 monthly report on mainland China’s political prisoners (August 2026 edition) lists 张超（释道果） among its current detainees.
Zhang has repeatedly said that a monk remains a citizen and that citizens have the right to comment on public affairs — a view he treated as a moral duty even at personal cost.
Documented record: Media Archive: Zhang Chao (张超), monastic name Shi Daoguo (释道果).