Zhou

MEMORANDUM **

Weishun Zhou, a native and citizen of the People’s Republic of China, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision dismissing his appeal from the Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his applications for asylum and withholding of removal. We have jurisdiction under 8 U.S.C. § 1252 .

As a preliminary matter, we conclude that Zhou sufficiently challenged the adverse credibility finding in his brief before the BIA. See Zhang v. Ashcroft, 388 F.3d 713, 721 (9th Cir.2004). Because the claim was exhausted before the agency, we have jurisdiction to review it. See id.

We review for substantial evidence an adverse credibility finding and will uphold the IJ’s decision unless the evidence compels a contrary conclusion. Malhi v. INS, 336 F.3d 989, 992-93 (9th Cir.2003). We grant the petition for review.

*645 We conclude that the IJ’s decision is not supported by substantial evidence in the record because the IJ did not cite to any specific examples in support of his findings that Zhou was evasive and unresponsive to questioning. See Singh v. Ashcroft, 301 F.3d 1109, 1113-14 (9th Cir. 2002) (absent any specific evidence in the record, a general…