Photo: The Epoch Times (Velká Epocha) / CC BY 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
I find it hard to write casually about Gao Zhisheng. A lawyer trained at Renmin University, he defended activists and religious minorities and documented abuses in China, and for that he was disbarred, detained repeatedly, and tortured. Where most people would fall silent, he kept recording the truth, a courage I genuinely struggle to imagine possessing myself. The Bruno Kreisky Award recognizes his human rights work, but honestly I care less about the prizes than about whether he is safe. People like him remind me how precious and fragile the freedom to speak really is, and I find myself simply hoping he endures.
Overview
Gao Zhisheng (born 20 April 1964) is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times, and severely tortured.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Gao Zhisheng
- Name (Japanese)
- 高智晟
- Reading
- こう・ちせい
- Born
- April 20, 1964 (age 62)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Dragon
- Origin
- Jia County, People's Republic of China
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- autobiographer / human rights defender / lawyer / politician / chinese human rights lawyer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Renmin University of China
Awards & achievements
- Bruno Kreisky Award for Services to Human Rights
- 2011 Index Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AB%98%E6%99%BA%E6%99%9F
Autobiographer — see all → · Human rights defender — see all → · More people from People's Republic of China →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.