CHINA WANTS YOU TO FORGET HER. HERE’S WHY LIN ZHAO MATTERS TODAY. 
NOVEMBER 4, 2026 “Lin Zhao poses a serious challenge to the Chinese regime,” said historian Lian Xi, a distinguished professor of world Christianity at Duke Divinity School who also teaches at Harvard Divinity School. Lian spent seven years researching Lin’s life for his definitive biography, Blood Letters. Once an ardent supporter of Mao’s Communist revolution, Lin became an outspoken critic, writing protests in her own blood while imprisoned before her execution in 1968. Decades later, authorities installed surveillance cameras and a steel gate at her tomb, and some mourners have been jailed. “The regime is paranoid about her legacy,” Lian said. Today, her legacy lives on through ChinaAid’s Lin Zhao Freedom Award, presented since 2018 to Chinese advocates defending human rights and religious freedom. The annual award, which includes a financial prize, honors those demonstrating similar courage in confronting injustice. In this lightly edited interview, Professor Lian recounts Lin’s extraordinary life and explains why her example speaks to believers and other defenders of freedom today.