Chinese human rights activist to give talk at Town Hall

Sunday 16 April 2023

A Chinese dissident — who has been challenging and documenting human rights abuses in the country for eight years — will be taking time out of her holiday to Jersey next week to give a talk on her fight for human rights.

Jessie Mou is a beneficiary of a 'restorative holiday' to the island, organised by the The Prisoners of Conscience Holiday Fund Jersey.

Chaired by former Jurat Collette Crill, the organisation aims to promote the welfare of UK-resident political refugees. 

Jessie has been fighting for human rights in China since 2015. 

Both of her parents have victims of human rights abuses in China, with her father having spent twenty years in jail for criticism of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). 

In 2010, Jessie was herself detained by the police for 24 hours after tweeting in support of Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Prize winning Chinese activist. 

She also covered an average of 150 cases per month for Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (CRLW), a Chinese news website covering rights issues such as police abuses and government corruption — becoming the organisations head in 2017 after the arrest of the founder and director, Liu Feiyue. 

Amidst increasing police pressure, Jessie decided to flee China in 2019 after being granted a place on a fellowship scheme by a British academic institution.

Once in the UK, she was accepted for political asylum in August 2021, and is now studying for a BA in Politics at the University of York. 

Whilst on holiday in Jersey, Jessie will be giving a talk at the Town Hall on Wednesday 19 April at 17:30, where she will discuss her personal experiences with human rights abuses in China.

Key to the talk will be her research on the ‘Ankang System’: prisons where petitioners and dissidents with no mental illness are forced into psychiatric hospitals for compulsory treatment. 

Pictured top: Jessie Mou, Chinese dissident and human rights activist.