——“功勋不容抹杀，暴政必须终结”
2026年8月16日，民主人士在中国驻旧金山总领馆前举行纪念周怀林逝世28周年集会
作者：吕小静
【旧金山讯】2026年8月16日下午，中国民主党旧金山党部、中国民主教育基金会在中国驻旧金山总领事馆前举行“纪念周怀林先生逝世28周年暨谴责中共暴政集会”。活动以“功勋不容抹杀，暴政必须终结——铭记历史，守护公义”为主题。
现场参与者通过演讲、个人经历和口号等方式，回顾周怀林事件以及中国农村沉重税费负担下普通农民的生存处境，并从周怀林事件进一步讨论基层权力、城乡差距、社会保障、法治以及公民基本权利等问题。
活动主持人周小俊表示，周怀林事件对他而言并不是一段遥远的历史。事件发生时，他还是一名十几岁的少年，生活在距离事发地约一百公里的地方，对那个年代江西农村的贫困与不公有着切身感受。
他表示，周怀林的悲剧不能只被视为一个人的命运，其背后折射的是当年农村沉重的农业税、地方收费和各种摊派，以及普通农民面对基层权力时维权困难的现实。周怀林曾收集中央有关减轻农民负担的政策，希望依据政策和法律维护农民权益，却最终在被当地方面控制期间死亡，并引发严重的农民抗争。
周小俊由此提出一个核心问题：为什么一个原本试图按照政策讲道理的普通农民，最后会走向这样的悲剧？
他强调，自己不赞成暴力，也不认为暴力能够代表正义，但社会不能只看到冲突最终激化后的暴力，而不追问在此之前，普通农民究竟经历了什么，又是什么让社会矛盾一步步走向失控。
当土地权益受到侵害、基层权力缺乏有效监督，当申诉、上访和诉讼无法让普通人感受到公平，当法律不能真正约束权力时，社会对法律的信任就可能逐渐瓦解。
“真正能够终结暴力的，不是更大的暴力，而是公正；真正能够带来稳定的，不是镇压，而是让人民相信法律。”周小俊说。
他同时谈到城乡政治权利和养老保障长期存在的差距，指出农民不仅生产粮食，一代又一代农民工还参与建设城市、公路、铁路和工厂，为中国数十年的经济发展付出了巨大劳动。
他表示，纪念周怀林不是为了鼓励仇恨和暴力，而是希望中国不再出现“下一个周怀林”，让一个普通人在遭遇不公时，能够“有法院可以去，有道理可以讲，有权力可以监督，有尊严可以维护”。
活动组织者康嘉铭则从自己出生、成长于上海的经历谈起。他表示，在许多人的印象中，上海意味着高楼大厦、经济发展和国际化，但大城市的繁华也容易让人忽略中国广大农村曾经承受的沉重社会成本。
他指出，上世纪90年代，当一些城市正在快速发展时，江西丰城以及中国广大农村地区的大量农民仍承受农业税、地方收费和各种摊派带来的压力。
康嘉铭认为，丰城事件以及后来取消的农业税，并不是官方皇恩浩荡恩赐的结果，而是像周怀林先生这样千千万万普通人用鲜血抗争和生命以死相拼逼出来的代价。
康嘉铭在发言中批评中共体制。他认为，当局一方面强调“以人为本”，另一方面却长期让底层群体承担沉重的制度成本；当普通人试图依据官方政策和法律维护自身权益时，面对的往往不是平等沟通，而是压制。
“暴政的残酷是不分领域的。”康嘉铭表示，周怀林的遭遇提醒人们，基层农民的权利与城市居民的自由并不是两个彼此隔绝的问题：“今天它可以在乡村践踏一个维权农民的权利，明天也可能在城市里剥夺一个普通人的尊严、人权与自由。”
他认为，一个社会不能因为拥有繁华都市和亮眼的经济数字，就忽视最底层群体承担的代价。农民长期通过粮食、土地、税费以及低成本劳动力参与中国工业化和城市化进程，他们的养老、医疗以及基本社会保障，同样应该得到公平对待。
康嘉铭说，衡量一个社会真正的文明程度，不只是看它建起多少高楼，而要看它如何对待最普通、最弱势的人。“奉献了一辈子汗水的中国农民，理应拥有尊严、体面的晚年。”
两个家庭的记忆，还原一代农民的生存处境
如果说周小俊和康嘉铭更多是在追问制度，那么赵明和熊朝凤的发言，则把现场带回到普通农村家庭具体而细微的生活记忆。
赵明回忆，在没有农用车辆、道路泥泞的年代，每年“交公粮”都是姥爷一年中最沉重的负担之一。天还没亮，老人便要拉着装有数百斤粮食的木板车，走十几公里前往粮站，有时还要长时间排队等待验收。
一年辛苦种出的优质粮食大量上缴后，留给一家人的口粮已经十分有限，再加上“三提留五统筹”等费用和摊派，即使终年辛勤耕作，生活依然贫困。赵明回忆，当时一家人经常依靠红薯、玉米面、高粱面和腌菜充饥，肉食则是一年难得吃上几次的奢侈品。
他认为，姥爷一家的经历并不是孤立的家庭故事，而是那个年代许多中国农民共同生活处境的缩影。
来自湖南的熊朝凤则以“农民女儿”的身份讲述自己的童年。她回忆，父母依靠种田养育三个孩子，一年辛苦收获的粮食在承担税费以及出售换取学费之后，能够留下的口粮已经不多。粮食不够时，只能吃红薯和蔬菜，有时还需要向邻居和亲戚借粮。
她至今记得一个细节：有一次弟弟从奶奶家回来，母亲想给他煎一个鸡蛋，却在油缸里刮了很久，也没有找到一点猪油。
一个今天看来再普通不过的鸡蛋，却成为她记忆中那个贫困年代最深刻的注脚。
熊朝凤表示，正因为自己是农民的女儿，她今天站出来纪念周怀林，也是在为那些曾经和仍然生活在社会底层的普通人发声。
她认为，一个国家真正的强大，不应该只有高楼大厦和经济数字，更应该体现在普通人是否能够有尊严地生活，是否拥有表达的权利以及选择自己生活的自由。
当天的讨论随后从农村历史进一步延伸至权力监督、公民权利和政治制度。
姚荣涛在发言中强调，反对一党专政并不意味着反对中国。恰恰因为关心中国和中国人民的未来，才更应该要求国家权力受到制度和法律的约束。
“中国属于中国人民，而不是属于任何一个政党。”姚荣涛表示，一个真正强大的国家不应该害怕人民说真话，一个有自信的政府也不应该害怕新闻自由、言论自由以及不同声音。
他表示，他们追求的不是混乱与仇恨，而是自由、民主、法治、尊严，以及一个真正接受人民监督的政府。
李树青则表示，周怀林事件更深层的意义，在于提醒人们重新审视普通人在公权力面前究竟拥有多少表达、质疑和申诉的空间。
他认为，当权力缺乏制约，当普通人的申诉无法得到正常回应，甚至遭到压制时，最终受到伤害的不只是某一个维权者，而是整个社会对公平、法律和制度的信任。
李树青表示，纪念周怀林，也是在向所有因为争取自身权利而受到打压的人表达：“我们不会遗忘，我们不会沉默。”他同时呼吁保障真相、自由、人权与法治，并支持中国人民通过和平方式争取基本权利。
郭鉴鑫表示，周怀林已经离世28年，人们今天仍然公开纪念他，是因为一个人的生命可以逝去，但普通人为维护自身权利表现出的勇气，不应该随着时间消失。
他认为，“功勋不容抹杀”的意义，正是保存那些容易被遗忘的历史记忆，让后来者知道，每一次社会进步的背后，都可能有普通人曾经付出的代价。
从周小俊少年时代对江西农村的记忆，到康嘉铭从上海都市繁华背后看到的城乡落差；从赵明姥爷拉着几百斤公粮走过泥泞乡路，到熊朝凤母亲刮遍油缸却无法为孩子煎一个鸡蛋——当天的发言最终共同指向一个问题：
二十八年过去，人们为什么还要纪念周怀林？
答案或许并不仅仅存在于周怀林个人的命运之中。 当一个普通人拿着政策文件试图维护自己的权利，他能否得到制度的保护；当农民面对不合理负担，他能否公开提出质疑；当一个人的权利受到侵害，他能否通过法院、媒体和正常申诉渠道获得救济——这些问题决定的，不只是一个人的命运，也是一个社会究竟选择依靠权力还是依靠规则运行。
因此，纪念周怀林真正需要保存的，不只是一个名字，而是一段不能被轻易抹去的社会记忆。
历史不能只记录最后出台了什么政策，也应该记录政策改变之前，普通人经历过怎样的生活，又为改变付出过怎样的代价。
当天活动最后，参与者在中国驻旧金山总领事馆前高喊“功勋不容抹杀，暴政必须终结”“拒绝专制独裁，还我自由中国”“结束一党专政，民主万岁”“停止迫害异见人士，保障基本人权自由”“支持维权，反对暴政”“还我人权，还我自由”等口号。
“时间可以过去，但历史不能被遗忘。”周小俊表示。
二十八年后的这场纪念，最终所追问的也许正是一个超越周怀林个人的问题：如何让一个普通人在遭遇不公时仍然相信讲道理有用、法律有用、和平维权有用？
当一个社会能够让最弱势的人拥有申诉的渠道，让权力受到监督，让法律真正成为保护普通人的盾牌，而不是让人对制度失去希望，类似的悲剧才可能真正避免。
这也是现场参与者所表达的共同诉求：让历史被记住，让权利得到保障，让中国未来能够走向一个真正尊重法治、民主、自由、平等与人的尊严的社会。
参加本次活动的民运人士名单：康嘉铭，李树青，周小俊，高志彬，赵明，郭鉴鑫，郑云，刘静涛，姚荣涛，郭金生等（排名不分先后）
编辑：冯仍 校对：冯仍 翻译：沈美花
San Francisco Rally Commemorates 28th Anniversary of Zhou Huailin’s Passing
—“Merit Must Not Be Erased, Tyranny Must Be Ended”
On August 16, 2026, pro-democracy activists held a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate-General in San Francisco to commemorate the 28th anniversary of Zhou Huailin’s passing.
Author: Lv Xiaojing
[San Francisco News] On the afternoon of August 16, 2026, the San Francisco Chapter of the Democracy Party of China and the Chinese Democracy Education Foundation held a rally titled “Commemorating the 28th Anniversary of Mr. Zhou Huailin’s Passing and Denouncing CCP Tyranny” in front of the Consulate-General of the People’s Republic of China in San Francisco. The event carried the theme: “Merit Must Not Be Erased, Tyranny Must Be Ended — Remember History, Safeguard Justice.”
Through speeches, personal accounts, and slogans, participants at the scene revisited the Zhou Huailin Incident and the plight of ordinary farmers living under the heavy burden of rural taxes and arbitrary levies in China. Drawing from the Zhou Huailin Incident, attendees further discussed critical issues including grassroots administrative power, the urban-rural divide, social security, the rule of law, and fundamental citizens’ rights.
Event host Zhou Xiaojun stated that the Zhou Huailin Incident was not a distant piece of history to him. When the incident occurred, he was still a teenager living about 100 kilometers away from the location, giving him a firsthand sense of the poverty and injustice present in rural Jiangxi during that era.
He expressed that Zhou Huailin’s tragedy should not be viewed merely as the fate of a single individual; behind it lay the heavy agricultural taxes, local fees, and various arbitrary levies imposed on the countryside in those years, as well as the reality of ordinary farmers struggling to defend their rights against grassroots administrative power. Zhou Huailin had gathered central government policies regarding the reduction of farmers’ financial burdens, hoping to safeguard farmers’ rights and interests in accordance with those policies and laws. Yet, he ultimately died while under the control of local authorities, which triggered severe peasant resistance.
From this, Zhou Xiaojun raised a central question: Why did an ordinary farmer, who originally sought to reason according to official policy, end up meeting such a tragedy?
He emphasized that he does not advocate violence, nor does he believe that violence can represent justice. However, society cannot focus solely on the violence that emerges after conflicts escalate, without questioning what ordinary farmers endured prior to that point, and what caused social contradictions to spiral out of control step by step.
When land rights and interests are infringed upon, when grassroots power lacks effective oversight, when appeals, petitioning, and litigation fail to give ordinary people a sense of fairness, and when the law cannot truly restrain power, society’s trust in the legal system risks gradual collapse.
“What can truly end violence is not greater violence, but justice; what can truly bring stability is not suppression, but enabling the people to believe in the law,” Zhou Xiaojun said.
At the same time, he addressed the long-standing gaps in political rights and old-age social security between urban and rural areas, pointing out that farmers not only produce grain, but generations of migrant workers have also participated in building cities, highways, railways, and factories, dedicating immense labor to China’s decades of economic development.
He stated that commemorating Zhou Huailin is not intended to encourage hatred or violence, but rather to hope that China will never see “another Zhou Huailin,” so that when an ordinary person encounters injustice, they can have “courts to go to, reason to stand on, power that can be supervised, and dignity that can be maintained.”
Event organizer Kang Jiaming spoke from his perspective of being born and raised in Shanghai. He noted that in many people’s impressions, Shanghai signifies skyscrapers, economic development, and internationalization, yet the prosperity of big cities can easily cause people to overlook the heavy social costs once borne by China’s vast countryside.
He pointed out that in the 1990s, while some cities were developing rapidly, large numbers of farmers in Fengcheng, Jiangxi, and across China’s broad rural regions were still enduring the pressure brought on by agricultural taxes, local fees, and various arbitrary levies.
Kang Jiaming argued that the Fengcheng Incident and the subsequent abolition of the agricultural tax were not the result of imperial benevolence bestowed by official authorities, but rather a price forced by tens of thousands of ordinary people like Mr. Zhou Huailin, who fought back with their blood and risked their lives.
In his speech, Kang Jiaming criticized the CCP regime. He argued that while the authorities emphasize a “people-first” approach on one hand, they have long forced marginalized grassroots groups to bear heavy systemic costs on the other; when ordinary people attempt to safeguard their rights according to official policies and laws, what they face is often not equal communication, but suppression.
“The cruelty of tyranny makes no distinction between domains,” Kang Jiaming stated. He expressed that Zhou Huailin’s ordeal serves as a reminder that the rights of rural farmers and the freedoms of urban residents are not two isolated issues: “Today it can trample upon the rights of a rights-defending farmer in the countryside, and tomorrow it can deprive an ordinary person of their dignity, human rights, and freedom in the city.”
He maintained that a society cannot ignore the costs borne by its most marginalized groups simply because it possesses prosperous metropolises and striking economic figures. Farmers have long participated in China’s industrialization and urbanization through grain, land, taxes, and low-cost labor; their pensions, healthcare, and basic social security deserve to be treated with equal fairness.
Kang Jiaming said that measuring a society’s true degree of civilization is not merely about how many skyscrapers it erects, but about how it treats its most ordinary and vulnerable people. “Chinese farmers who have dedicated a lifetime of sweat deserve to possess a dignified and decent old age.”
Memories of Two Families Reconstruct the Living Conditions of a Generation of Farmers
If Zhou Xiaojun and Kang Jiaming were focusing more on questioning the system, the speeches by Zhao Ming and Xiong Chaofeng brought the scene back to the concrete and subtle living memories of ordinary rural families.
Zhao Ming recalled that during an era without farm vehicles and with muddy roads, handing over the public grain quota each year was one of the heaviest burdens of his maternal grandfather’s year. Before daybreak, the old man had to pull a wooden cart loaded with hundreds of catties of grain, walking over ten kilometers to the grain station, sometimes waiting in long lines for inspection and acceptance.
After handing over a large portion of the high-quality grain grown through a year of hard work, the rations left for the family were extremely limited. Coupled with fees and levies such as the “three local withholdings and five unified levies,” life remained impoverished despite working diligently all year round. Zhao Ming recalled that at the time, his family often relied on sweet potatoes, cornmeal, sorghum flour, and pickled vegetables to satisfy their hunger, while meat was a luxury enjoyed only a few times a year.
He expressed that his grandfather’s family experience was not an isolated household story, but a microcosm of the shared living conditions of many Chinese farmers during that era.
Xiong Chaofeng, coming from Hunan, spoke about her childhood in her capacity as a “farmer’s daughter.” She recalled that her parents relied on farming to raise three children; after paying taxes and fees and selling part of the harvest to cover school tuition, little grain remained from what they had worked hard all year to harvest. When grain was insufficient, they could only eat sweet potatoes and vegetables, and sometimes had to borrow grain from neighbors and relatives.
To this day, she remembers a specific detail: Once, when her younger brother returned from their grandmother’s house, her mother wanted to fry an egg for him, but scraped around inside the oil crock for a long time without finding even a bit of lard.
An egg, which seems utterly ordinary today, became the most profound footnote in her memory of that impoverished era.
Xiong Chaofeng stated that precisely because she is a farmer’s daughter, standing up today to commemorate Zhou Huailin is also her way of speaking out for ordinary people who once lived—and still live—at the bottom of society.
She believes that a nation’s true strength should not consist merely of skyscrapers and economic statistics, but should be reflected even more in whether ordinary people can live with dignity, whether they possess the right to expression, and whether they have the freedom to choose their own lives.
The day’s discussion subsequently extended further from rural history into the supervision of power, civil rights, and political systems.
In his speech, Yao Rongtao emphasized that opposing one-party dictatorship does not mean opposing China. Precisely because one cares about the future of China and the Chinese people, one should all the more demand that state power be constrained by system and law.
“China belongs to the Chinese people, not to any single political party,” Yao Rongtao stated, adding that a truly strong country should not fear the people speaking the truth, and a confident government should not fear freedom of the press, freedom of speech, or differing voices.
He expressed that what they pursue is not chaos or hatred, but freedom, democracy, the rule of law, dignity, and a government that genuinely accepts supervision by the people.
Li Shuqing expressed that the deeper significance of the Zhou Huailin Incident lies in reminding people to reexamine just how much space ordinary individuals possess to express, question, and appeal when facing public power.
He maintained that when power lacks checks, and when ordinary people’s appeals fail to receive a normal response or are even suppressed, what ultimately suffers injury is not merely a single rights defender, but the entire society’s trust in fairness, law, and institutions.
Li Shuqing stated that commemorating Zhou Huailin is also a way of expressing to all those who have faced repression for standing up for their own rights: “We will not forget, and we will not remain silent.” At the same time, he called for safeguarding truth, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law, as well as supporting the Chinese people in striving for their fundamental rights through peaceful means.
Guo Jianxin stated that Zhou Huailin has been passed away for 28 years, and people still publicly commemorate him today because while an individual’s life may pass, the courage demonstrated by ordinary people in defending their own rights should not disappear with time.
He maintained that the significance of “merit must not be erased” lies precisely in preserving those historical memories that are easily forgotten, letting future generations know that behind every piece of social progress, there may lie a price once paid by ordinary individuals.
From Zhou Xiaojun’s teenage memories of rural Jiangxi, to Kang Jiaming observing the urban-rural gap behind the prosperity of metropolitan Shanghai; from Zhao Ming’s maternal grandfather pulling hundreds of catties of public grain along muddy village roads, to Xiong Chaofeng’s mother scraping every corner of the oil crock yet unable to fry an egg for her child—the speeches of the day ultimately pointed together toward a single question:
Twenty-eight years later, why do people still commemorate Zhou Huailin?
The answer perhaps does not lie merely within Zhou Huailin’s personal fate. When an ordinary person holds official policy documents attempting to defend their rights, can they receive protection from the system? When farmers face unreasonable burdens, can they publicly raise questions? When an individual’s rights are infringed upon, can they obtain redress through courts, media, and normal appeal channels? What these questions decide is not just the fate of one person, but whether a society ultimately chooses to operate by power or by rules.
Therefore, what truly needs to be preserved in commemorating Zhou Huailin is not merely a name, but a piece of social memory that cannot be easily erased.
History cannot record only what policies were eventually introduced; it should also record what kind of lives ordinary people endured before policies changed, and what price they paid to bring about change.
At the conclusion of the day’s event, participants shouted slogans in front of the Chinese Consulate-General in San Francisco, including “Merit must not be erased, tyranny must be ended,” “Reject dictatorship and autocracy, restore my free China,” “End one-party dictatorship, long live democracy,” “Stop persecuting dissidents, safeguard fundamental human rights and freedom,” “Support rights defense, oppose tyranny,” and “Restore my human rights, restore my freedom.”
“Time may pass, but history cannot be forgotten,” Zhou Xiaojun stated.
What this commemoration twenty-eight years later ultimately questions is perhaps an issue transcending Zhou Huailin as an individual: How can an ordinary person, when encountering injustice, still believe that reasoning works, that the law works, and that peaceful rights assertion works?
Only when a society enables its most vulnerable people to possess channels for appeal, subjects power to supervision, and allows the law to truly serve as a shield protecting ordinary people—rather than making people lose hope in the system—can similar tragedies be genuinely prevented.
This was also the shared demand expressed by participants at the scene: to let history be remembered, let rights be safeguarded, and enable China’s future to move toward a society that truly respects the rule of law, democracy, freedom, equality, and human dignity.
List of Pro-Democracy Activists Participating in This Event:
Kang Jiaming, Li Shuqing, Zhou Xiaojun, Gao Zhibin, Zhao Ming, Guo Jianxin, Zheng Yun, Liu Jingtao, Yao Rongtao, Guo Jinsheng, etc. (Listed in no particular order)
Editor: Feng Reng Proofreader: Feng Reng Translator: Shen Meihua
