Zhang Lifan

Zhang Lifan (, born July 1950), is a Chinese writer, scholar and historian.

Biography Zhang's father, Zhang Naiqi , was one of the founders of the China National Democratic Association, Zhang's mother is Zhang Caiping .

In an interview with NPR on the arrest of young Marxists fighting for workers rights, Zhang said "I think this shows China's Communist Party can no longer justify itself". Zhang said further that young Marxists in China pose a conundrum for the country's leadership, whom he says only feign interest in Marxism to "maintain a guiding principle".

In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Zhang said that the COVID-19 pandemic posed the greatest challenge in the Chinese Communist Party's 70-year history, after the Great Chinese Famine during Mao Zedong era and the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989. Zhang said that the Chinese government did an excellent job censoring details of the pandemic and is exploiting it to strengthen its control over society.

Zhang contends that the display of Mao Zedong's preserved remains at Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is a moral and legal violation of Mao's expressed wish for frugal socialist funeral.

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