Today, on the eleventh anniversary of the “709 Crackdown,” HRIC and six other organizations jointly presented the 2026 Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Award. As in previous years, we solicited nominations from within the community of Chinese human rights lawyers; this year, 45 lawyers participated in the nomination process, putting forward more than a dozen candidates. After tallying the votes, the organizers selected this year’s two recipients: Lawyer Zhang Kai and Lawyer Yu Kai.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to them.
After passing the National Judicial Examination in 2003, Lawyer Zhang Kai initially practiced corporate law. In 2006, he began working on public interest litigation and human rights cases, becoming one of the earliest rights-defense lawyers. He once remarked, “Ninety percent of the cases I handle are cases of injustice,” a statement that simply yet precisely encapsulates the values ??and life choices of a Chinese lawyer.
Following the 2008 melamine-tainted milk scandal, Lawyer Zhang Kai served on a legal aid team, representing victims in a class-action civil lawsuit. He has also provided anti-discrimination legal support to people living with HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B, and has represented farmers in cases concerning land rights. A family planning case he handled in 2012 drew widespread international attention to the brutal realities of China’s compulsory family planning policies.
In 2010, during the high-profile “My Father is Li Gang” hit-and-run case, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice pressured the law firm where Zhang Kai worked, forcing the termination of his representation in the case. Shortly thereafter, he was surrounded and beaten by unidentified individuals on the streets of Beijing.
As both a lawyer and a member of a Chinese house church, Zhang Kai has emerged over the past decade as a key leader in legal cases involving Christian communities. He has represented many of these cases across multiple provinces and has led rights-defense efforts to safeguard religious freedom. In 2014, when the Zhejiang provincial government launched a massive campaign of forced church cross demolitions, Zhang Kai spent nearly a year in Wenzhou living and working alongside local churches. He organized a “legal team to defend the crosses” and compiled a practical legal handbook to help churches utilize administrative law to safeguard their legitimate rights and property.
As a result of these efforts, Zhang Kai was detained by the authorities on August 25, 2015. During the ensuing seven months of imprisonment, he was subjected to mental and physical torture and forced to give a public “confession” on television.
In August 2016, while released on bail pending trial, Zhang Kai was compelled to publicly express support for the authorities’ prosecution of the “709 Crackdown” lawyers. However, a few days later, he issued a formal statement on Weibo retracting his remarks, explaining that they had been “forced statements made against his conscience” under duress, and asked for forgiveness from his colleagues and the public.
After authorities subsequently blocked the annual renewal of his practicing license, Zhang Kai devoted more energy to public writing. In July 2018, following China’s tainted vaccine scandal, he published an article titled “We Are All in the Same Boat,” which garnered tens of millions of views. He then used a million yuan in reader donations to establish the “Responsibility and Rule of Law Fund,” providing legal aid to ordinary citizens unable to afford legal counsel.
A few years later, after resuming his legal practice, Zhang Kai continued to represent clients in numerous cases involving political prisoners, religious freedom issues, and wrongful convictions.
In October 2025, Chinese authorities arrested 18 pastoral staff members from Beijing Zion Church. Zhang Kai served as defense counsel for Senior Pastor Jin Mingri and faced various forms of pressure and harassment as a result.
In January 2026, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice permanently revoked Zhang Kai’s license to practice law, citing “disruption of courtroom order” in an unrelated case. Simultaneously, the authorities suspended the licenses of several other lawyers on the Zion Church defense team for six months and forcibly shut down the Beijing Kaimen Law Firm, where Zhang Kai served as director.
In the span of just over twenty years since the emergence of the human rights lawyer community in China, authorities have cancelled or revoked the licenses of more than 70 such lawyers—a staggering figure—with Zhang Kai being the latest example. This once again demonstrates that the authoritarian system in China does not tolerate lawyers fighting for judicial justice, while also reflecting the extraordinary courage and contributions of China’s human rights lawyers. They have been, and continue to be, authors of a significant chapter in history.
Today, with profound respect, we present the 2026 China Human Rights Lawyer Award to Attorney Zhang Kai.
Congratulations!
The other recipient of the 2026 China Human Rights Lawyer Award is Attorney Yu Kai.
Attorney Yu Kai is the Director of the Xiaolin Law Firm in Qingdao, Shandong Province. For over two decades, he has steadfastly utilized legal avenues—including litigation, administrative reconsideration, administrative appeals, and legislative proposals—to oversee government compliance with the law and to defend the fundamental rights of citizens. As a practicing lawyer, Yu Kai employs legal statutes and procedural rules to vigorously advocate for clients facing the overreach of administrative and judicial power, upholding the dignity of the law with professionalism.
In 2020, upon discovering in a court judgment that the then-president of the Qingdao Lawyers Association was implicated in bribery yet had never been held accountable, he chose to publicly report the matter. He stated, “With seven thousand lawyers in Qingdao, it is a disgrace to have someone with a record of bribery serving as president.” Three years later, the president was finally forced to resign.
In June 2023, while representing human rights defender Li Qiaochu, Yu Kai withdrew from the courtroom in protest against severe procedural violations; specifically, the court’s unlawful refusal to allow co-counsel to appear and its dismissal of all procedural motions. He refused to participate in an unjust trial, declaring, “We will leave our ‘evidence for the record’—not of the courtroom, but of history.” This statement stands as a testament to the commitment of Chinese rights-defense lawyers to procedural justice.
Attorney Yu Kai does not merely handle individual cases; he actively advocates for systemic reform. For a long time, the “crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble”—a “catch-all” offense frequently subject to abuse—has served as a key legal tool for suppressing dissidents, rights-defending citizens, independent journalists, whistleblowers, and ordinary petitioners. In 2023 and 2025, Yu Kai and his colleagues from the Xiaolin Law Firm submitted legislative proposals to the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, calling for the abolition of this specific criminal charge. Citing the principle of “no crime without law” (nullum crimen sine lege), they systematically argued that the charge was vaguely defined and overly broad in application, thereby infringing upon citizens’ freedom of speech and undermining the credibility of China’s criminal law system.
In January 2024, when young trainee lawyer Zhang Wenpeng faced prolonged delays in his application to practice law after publicly criticizing the state-run lawyers’ association, Yu Kai publicly voiced his support. He wrote to the Shandong Provincial Department of Justice, urging them to safeguard lawyers’ rights to practice in accordance with the law. In February 2026, when Zhang Wenpeng, who had been arrested on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” stood trial, Yu Kai traveled to Sanya, Hainan, to show his support. When the court barred observers from the courtroom in an attempt to conduct a secret trial, Yu Kai expressed his indignation and protest by slamming his lawyer’s license card onto the ground and stomping on it forcefully.
His steadfast adherence to principle invited retaliation from the authorities.
In July 2024, due to his proposal to abolish the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Justice imposed an administrative penalty on Yu Kai, suspending his license to practice for one year on the grounds of “improperly sensationalizing cases.” It also ordered the Xiaolin Law Firm to suspend operations for six months for “rectification.”
After the suspension period ended, Yu Kai did not choose silence. In addition to once again proposing to the National People’s Congress that the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” be abolished, he traveled to Beijing on March 26, 2026. Outside the Ministry of Justice building, he publicly submitted a formal petition calling for the abolition of the “control and monitoring of key lawyers” system, which targets rights-defending lawyers; the removal of administrative restrictions such as the annual inspection of legal practice licenses; and the promotion of genuine industry self-governance for lawyers’ associations.
He was taken into custody by the police that same day, and on the following day, March 27, he was placed under criminal detention. Although he was released after one month of confinement, he did not regain his freedom; the threat of criminal prosecution remained, and his personal liberty continues to be strictly restricted to this day.
The sustained suppression Yu Kai has faced underscores the significant impact of his commitment to the rule of law. The fact that a lawyer is penalized simply for insisting on practicing in accordance with the law, upholding constitutional principles, and challenging unlawful administrative actions serves as a profound reflection of the current state of the rule of law in China.
We commend Lawyer Yu Kai for his courage, professionalism, and unwavering belief in the rule of law. He reminds us that a true lawyer does not merely uphold the law in the courtroom but steadfastly defends the law itself when it is being trampled upon.
In recognition of his long-standing contributions to professional ethics and institutional reform within the legal profession, it is with deep respect that we present the 2026 “Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Award” to Lawyer Yu Kai.
Thank you all.
