Media Archive: Zhang Pancheng (张盼成)
This is the source archive for the profile of Zhang Pancheng (张盼成), a young man from rural Gansu Province and a former Peking University security guard, detained repeatedly since 2018 over videos and statements critical of Xi Jinping. What follows is a chronological record of the published sources documenting his case, with notes on what each source establishes and where the record is incomplete.
See the Person Profile.
2018–2019 — the first arrest. In November 2018, Zhang posted a video online criticizing Xi Jinping and China’s human rights situation, and questioning Beijing’s tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid — reportedly $60 billion pledged to African nations. He then went missing. Friends and lawyers later confirmed his arrest on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” According to his mother, he was held in Beijing’s Xicheng District Detention Center for more than four months and the family received an arrest notice. A lawyer hired by the family visited him and reported that Zhang refused to admit wrongdoing, refused to write a letter of guarantee, and refused to sign the lawyer’s power of attorney. (Radio Free Asia, April 10, 2019, preserved via Chinascope.)
2020 — the 18-month sentence. The case went to trial at the Xicheng District People’s Court in Beijing in February 2020. On March 31, 2020, Zhang was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”; his co-defendant Qi Yiyuan of Jiangsu received 24 months. Both were in their twenties and had made videos critical of Xi; Zhang’s video had also called for the release of Dong Yaoqiong, Yue Xin, and detained Uyghurs. The trial was conducted with participants wearing full COVID-19 protective gear, and Zhang’s lawyer said the sentences exceeded the prosecution’s recommendations. (Radio Free Asia, April 7, 2020; Dui Hua Digest, April 2020.)
2021 — re-arrest. On February 14, 2021, shortly after his release from the 18-month term, Zhang was arrested again. The China Human Rights Lawyers Group’s New Year statement reports that he was handed a three-year prison sentence, while noting that it is unclear what crime he was charged with. (China Change, January 1, 2022.)
2024 — release, surveillance, disappearance. Zhang was released in February 2024 (Radio Free Asia’s September 2024 report dates the release to March) after serving the three-year term. He was then continuously followed and surveilled, and local authorities repeatedly came to his home attempting to label him “mentally ill.” On July 13, 2024, he issued a statement saying that if he were detained again he would go on a hunger strike, determined to resist until death. Shortly afterward he was forcibly disappeared for several days; criminal detention was confirmed on August 29, 2024. ChinaAid’s reporting places him at the Heshui County Detention Center in Gansu and reports that his two sentences totaled four and a half years for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” (ChinaAid, September 2024.)
August 2024 — the Zhang Zhan connection. On August 25, 2024, citizen journalist Zhang Zhan traveled to Gansu to obtain a power of attorney from Zhang Pancheng’s family — described in rights reporting as an effort to rescue him. Shanghai police took her away on August 28, 2024; she was formally arrested on November 18, 2024 and sentenced on September 19, 2025 to four years’ imprisonment for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” (ChinaAid; Issue 131’s Chinese edition; Dui Hua Prisoner Updates 2025 #8.)
March 2025 — international attention. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a partnership of the World Organisation Against Torture and the International Federation for Human Rights) issued an urgent appeal ahead of Zhang Zhan’s trial, reporting that Zhang Pancheng “has been in detention without access to legal representation since July 2024, after issuing a statement denouncing the continued surveillance against him.” (OMCT/FIDH, March 24, 2025; Radio Free Asia, September 9, 2024.)
August 31, 2026 — detained without trial. Issue 131 of the rights-defense monthly prisoner report lists 张盼成 under Gansu, together with Jing Shuren (景树仁), in the detained-without-trial section — the most recent dated evidence of his status.
What remains missing. No court judgment, detention notice, or official statement concerning Zhang Pancheng has been located. No trial or sentencing for the post-July-2024 detention has been reported. The exact current location, the charge for the reported 2021 three-year sentence, and Zhang’s age and family details beyond his mother have not been published.