Zhou Fengsuo

Zhou was born in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China on October 5, 1967. Zhou was elected to be a leader of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation in 1989. Due to his active engagement of the student-led pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, Zhou was arrested and imprisoned for a year. He left China in 1995 for the United States, where he studied analytic finance and accounting, and earned his MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1998. == 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre ==

Zhou actively promoted democracy across campus through organizing direct election within the students' union, initiated student clubs, advocating freedom for students newspapers, and started The Voice of Students () radio station in 1989. Zhou organized and participated in the protests, and was engaged in providing medical help for the protesters to ensure their safety during the hunger strike. Shortly after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Zhou was listed as number five on the government's wanted list and was soon arrested from his home in Xi'an. Allegedly, Zhou's sister and her husband turned him in to the police. Zhou was then imprisoned in Qincheng for a year. He was released in 1990 due to international support. == Post-Tiananmen Square ==

After being released from Qincheng, Zhou was exiled to Yangyuan, Hebei for a year. Zhou worked at Bear Stearns as an option currency trader, where he initiated and structured the currency-linked notes program, managed the proprietary options trading book in major currencies, and designed customized hedging and trading strategies for both corporate and high net-worth clients (1998–2001). He later worked and became the Director of Portfolio Oversight at AXA Rosenberg Investment Management (2001–2017). Activism In September 2000, Zhou was the leading plaintiff in a lawsuit by Tiananmen Massacre victims against Li Peng for crimes against humanity in 1989. This was the first of many lawsuits in United States filed against the officials of the Chinese Communist Party. In an interview with South China Morning Post, Zhou stated that he still believed the core issues being protested back in 1989 remain unresolved, such as government corruption. "There is pretty much a consensus today in China that government officials should disclose their assets," he said. The past 25 years had proven "that the massacre was for this small fraction of families that control China, not for the general well-being of the Chinese. If you look at the people who were hardliners 25 years ago, they are all billionaires now." From 2007 to 2010, Zhou was the President of the Chinese Democracy Education Foundation, which aims to promote "the prosperity and progress of Chinese society for democracy, freedom and human rights." He co-founded Humanitarian China in 2007 with the vision to develop a network of loosely connected grassroots NGOs to promote human rights and rule of law, and to provide humanitarian support to political prisoners in China. On the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Protests, as vigils in Hong Kong had been banned by authorities ostensibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Zhou said that Hongkongers "would need a lot of courage to deal with the enormous challenges coming their way" as they faced "Beijing's encroachment". He said it would be important for activists abroad and in Hong Kong to maintain their connections. Secret trip back to China On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the June Fourth crackdown, Zhou, now a US citizen, took advantage of China's policy of allowing 72-hour transit stops without a visa and managed to slip into the country briefly, even though Beijing took extreme measures to prevent public observances. == References ==