Organization profile. Human Rights Campaign in China (权利运动, abbreviated HRCC; full form 权利运动人权服务中心, Human Rights Service Center) was a mainland China–based virtual platform documenting grassroots rights-defense (维权) cases and campaigning for human-rights defenders at risk. Headed by Zhen Jianghua (甄江华, born 1985), it collected, organized, and published individual rights cases and follow-up reporting, and also ran the anti-censorship site ATGFW.org (翻墙网). The platform’s public publishing has been dormant since April 14, 2018; no 2025 activity, outputs, or third-party coverage of the organization were located.
Disambiguation note: This organization is not the US-based Human Rights Campaign, the LGBTQ advocacy organization of a similar English name. It is also distinct from 民生观察 (Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch), 六四天网 (64 Tianwang), 维权网 (CHRD), Campaign for Uyghurs, and 民权观察 (Civil Rights Observer, Hong Kong).
Organization snapshot
- Name: Human Rights Campaign in China / 权利运动
- Full form: 权利运动人权服务中心 (Human Rights Service Center)
- Abbreviation: HRCC
- Type: Virtual online rights-documentation platform
- Founded: Date and place not documented in any located source; same-name activity anchor by mid-2014 (probable, not a founding record)
- Founder, head, and executive director: Zhen Jianghua (甄江华, alias GuestsZhen), identified by Amnesty International and UN special procedures
- Websites (historical): www.hrcchina.org; quanliyundong.blogspot.com (3,311 posts)
- Status: Public publishing dormant since 2018-04-14 (verified by direct observation, 2026-09-24). No formal dissolution statement, closure notice, or successor announcement has been found; formal status (dissolved vs. dormant vs. operating non-publicly) is unresolved. 2025 evaluation: INSUFFICIENT — no 2025 activity, output, outcome, governance disclosure, or independent coverage exists to evaluate.
Mission and approach
In the organization’s own 2018 site description, its work was to collect, organize, report, follow up on, and assist individual rights-defense cases, and to document major domestic rights events of recent years (“近年来国内的重大维权事件其后不乏其身影” — many of them carry its traces). Amnesty International independently described it as a virtual organization “campaigning for human rights defenders at risk and helping individuals document and publicize the human rights violations they experienced.” Its anti-censorship work ran through ATGFW.org (翻墙网), teaching circumvention of the Great Firewall. These are the organization’s own descriptions and an independent assessment of its work.
Founder’s prosecution (background)
Zhen Jianghua (born 1985, from Jiangmen, Guangdong, based in Zhuhai) worked for over ten years with marginalized communities in China and led an HIV/AIDS prevention education project in Zhuhai. He was detained for 24+ hours in September 2016 after traveling to Wukan village in support of the anti-land-grab protest. On the evening of September 1, 2017, he was taken from his home in Zhuhai; on September 2 he was criminally detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” (煽动颠覆国家政权罪), and his home was searched — phones, computers, and documents connected with www.hrcchina.org were seized. He was held for about six months under residential surveillance at a designated location without access to a lawyer or family. On March 29, 2018, the Zhuhai People’s Procuratorate approved his formal arrest. On December 28, 2018, the Zhuhai Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention arbitrary in Opinion No. 20/2019 and called for his release. He was released from a prison in Yingde, Guangdong, on November 8, 2019, after serving his sentence. No confirmed public activities by Zhen Jianghua after his release have been located; his post-release whereabouts are not publicly documented.
Documented impact (historical)
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China cited HRCC articles as sources in its 2018 Annual Report, and Chinese Human Rights Defenders republished HRCC-credited material in 2014, showing the platform’s reporting was used by international monitors while it was active. Amnesty International ran an Urgent Action campaign for Zhen Jianghua from 2017 to 2019. No 2025 instance was found of the organization’s work changing a policy, law, or case outcome, and no 2025-dated third-party coverage by major human-rights outlets was located.
A 2026 attribution — resolved
A January 2026 Wikipedia article on the activist Yang Li (杨丽) attributes reporting on her medical condition to “Human Rights Campaign in China.” The cited source is https://www.chinahrc.org/content/41758/ (live; Chinese-language site named 权利运动), whose about page (https://www.chinahrc.org/about/) states that 权利运动 was founded in October 2008, registered in Hong Kong in October 2015 as 权利运动人权服务中心 (Human Rights Campaign in China), that its leader Zhen Jianghua was detained in September 2017, and that “the original Rights Campaign website was forced to stop operating in early 2018.”
The 2026 reporting therefore comes from a revived outlet that explicitly claims organizational continuity with Zhen Jianghua’s HRCC — not from the dormant historical platform documented here (hrcchina.org, last post April 14, 2018), and not from an unrelated namesake. That continuity claim is the outlet’s own statement. Content published on chinahrc.org is not counted here as activity of the historical platform, and the historical platform’s 2025 evaluation remains INSUFFICIENT.
Governance and transparency
No public information on governance — board, charter, staffing, funding, or finances — was found, for 2025 or any earlier year. The only documented roles are Zhen Jianghua’s (site registrant, head, executive director). The absence of public governance information is not evidence about the quality of governance, and is consistent with an unregistered grassroots virtual operation.
Related Free China profiles
- China-focused organizations directory: /research-archive/people-organizations/china-focused-organizations/
Sources
- Amnesty International — Urgent Action ASA 17/8157/2018 (2018); outcome report ASA1796412019ENGLISH (2019)
- UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention — Opinion No. 20/2019 (A/HRC/WGAD/2019/20)
- UN special procedures communication on Zhen Jianghua, 2018-01-24
- Human Rights Watch — January 29, 2019 statement on rights-website founders’ sentencings
- Front Line Defenders — November 11, 2019 report on Zhen Jianghua’s release
- Congressional-Executive Commission on China — 2018 Annual Report
- CIVICUS Monitor (2018); Reporters Without Borders (2017)
- Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) — case documentation; 2014 briefing
- quanliyundong.blogspot.com — the organization’s archived site (3,311 posts; last post April 14, 2018; observed September 24, 2026)
- chinahrc.org (权利运动) — Yang Li medical-rights report, https://www.chinahrc.org/content/41758/ (cited by English Wikipedia; observed live 2026-09-24)
- chinahrc.org — About page, https://www.chinahrc.org/about/ (continuity claim: founded Oct 2008, HK-registered Oct 2015, leader detained Sep 2017, original site forced offline early 2018; observed 2026-09-24)
Last reviewed: September 24, 2026. Inclusion documents public relevance and does not imply endorsement, partnership or membership.
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