Human rights defender Duan Taoyuan from Hunan was recently informed by the authorities that she would not be issued a passport, thereby depriving her of the right to leave the country. Prior to this, Duan Taoyuan was detained for ten days for holding up a sign calling for the release of the prominent human rights defender Zhang Zhan.
According to news from the rights defense network on April 11th, Duan Taoyuan recently received a call from the Changsha Exit and Entry Administration Bureau, where local police stations informed her that her passport application could not be processed, and urged her to come in promptly to get a refund.
Duan Taoyuan couldn’t help but question: “What have I done wrong? Why restrict my personal freedom?”
Duan Taoyuan, a resident of Changsha, Hunan, was previously detained and reprimanded multiple times for petitioning in Beijing along with fellow villagers due to inadequate relocation following a forced demolition and the illegal occupation of collective land by village cadres.
Last August, she was taken away by the Dongjing Police Station in the Yuhua District of Changsha around 2 p.m. on September 7, 2024, for holding up a sign calling for the release of Zhang Zhan, and was subsequently detained for ten days.
At that time, Zhang Zhan, who had just been released, went to Gansu alone from Shanghai to rescue Gansu activist Zhang Pancheng who had been arrested, persuaded his mother to sign a power of attorney, and was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the second time.