26 Facts About Zhou Fengsuo

Zhou Fengsuo is a Chinese human rights activist, investor, and former student leader during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Zhou Fengsuo was listed number 5 on the government's most wanted and forced into exile in the United States over his role in the student movement.

Zhou Fengsuo is currently the president of Humanitarian China and Co-founder of the China Human Rights Accountability Center.

Zhou Fengsuo was born in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China on October 5,1967.

Zhou Fengsuo enrolled at Tsinghua University in 1985 and majored in physics.

Zhou Fengsuo was elected to be a leader of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Federation in 1989.

Zhou Fengsuo 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.

Zhou Fengsuo 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 Fengsuo 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 Fengsuo was listed as number five on the government's wanted list and was arrested from his home in Xi'an.

Zhou Fengsuo was released in 1990 due to international support.

Amid constant monitoring and police harassment, sometimes with friends whose experiences had been similar to his own, Zhou Fengsuo struggled to earn a living.

In 1995, Zhou Fengsuo moved to the United States with no prospect of returning home legally.

Zhou Fengsuo graduated with honors and received his MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1998.

Zhou Fengsuo became a Christian in 2003 and has worked in finance in recent years.

Zhou Fengsuo co-founded Humanitarian China in 2007, a group that promotes the rule of law and civil society in China and raises money for Chinese political prisoners.

Zhou Fengsuo 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.

Zhou Fengsuo later worked and became the Director of Portfolio Oversight at AXA Rosenberg Investment Management.

In September 2000, Zhou Fengsuo was the leading plaintiff in a lawsuit by Tiananmen Massacre victims against Li Peng for crimes against humanity in 1989.

Zhou Fengsuo actively participates in discussions on campuses across the US in an effort to bring about awareness to students who are unfamiliar with the issues.

Zhou Fengsuo said it would be important for activists abroad and in Hong Kong to maintain their connections.

Zhou Fengsuo said he showed solidarity by paying a visit to his friend Gao Yu, a former reporter who wrote about the Tiananmen Protests and was jailed, alongside human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, at a detention center.

Zhou Fengsuo faced no problem when he identified himself at the reception; later police came to his hotel on the pretext of searching for drugs and interrogated him at length.

Zhou Fengsuo was then put on a flight back to the United States, Zhou said.

Zhou Fengsuo revealed that prior to this visit, he had visited China on two other occasions in which no friends nor family knew of his plans beforehand.

On June 1,2020, Zoom closed Zhou Fengsuo's paid account a week after he held an event discussing the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.