Liu Xiaobo, the Beijing-based writer, intellectual, dissident, and human rights activist, died on July 13, 2017, not long after being issued medical parole, and over eight-and-a-half years into an 11-year prison sentence. In October 2010, the imprisoned Liu became the first Chinese citizen awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Liu Xianbin, from Suining City in Sichuan Province, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in 1992 for his participation in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. After his release, he dedicated himself to democracy and human rights activism, and in 1998 was a founding member of the Sichuan branch of the (read more…)
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Detained in September of 2010 and arrested the next month, Li Tie , from Wuhan City in Hubei Province, was tried in April of 2011 but not sentenced until January of 2012. In the decade before his detention, Li had written many online articles promoting democracy, constitutional government, and direct (read more…)
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Born on May 25, 1959, Li Hongwei began her rights defense activities in 2007, when her ancestral home was forcibly demolished without an agreement, proper arrangements, or compensation in place. In retaliation for her petitioning, Li suffered various forms of repression from authorities.
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Uyghur journalist, editor, and writer Hailaite Niyazi was taken from his home in Tacheng Prefecture in Xinjiang in October 2009 on suspicion of endangering state security. Almost 10 months later and without a lawyer present, Niyazi was sentenced to 15 years for “leaking state secrets.”
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Guo Quan, born May 8, 1968, was an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University in Jiangsu Province before being barred from teaching due to his activism. In December 2007, Guo established the China Xinmin Party (中国新民党) and went on to serve as its spokesperson.
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Gao Zhisheng is a former lawyer and director of the Beijing Shengzhi Law Firm, which had its license suspended by the Beijing Bureau of Judiciary Affairs in November 2005. Gao represented defendants who were persecuted for activities tied to the banned sect Falun Gong and unofficial Christian house churches.
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Karma Samdrup, a prominent Tibetan businessman and environmentalist, was arrested in early 2010 on the charge of excavating and robbing ancient tombs, and later sentenced to 15 years in prison. The alleged crime of “grave-robbing” stemmed from Xinjiang police charging Karma in 1998 with purchasing $10,000 worth of goods.
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Sichuan dissident and poet Li Bifeng (李必丰) was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan on a seemingly concocted charge of “contract fraud” in addition to a request to return 3 million yuan that he supposedly embezzled from a company.
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Originally from Guangxi Province, Chen Xi (aka Chen Youcai [陈友才]) has been a member of the Guizhou Human Rights Forum, which was declared by Guizhou authorities to be an “illegal organization” on December 5, 2011—a week after his most recent arrest and just prior to UN Human Rights Day.
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Chen Wei has been frequently harassed by police, placed under tight surveillance, and has had restrictions placed on his movement, including at least one occasion in which he was prevented from leaving the country. Chen was taken into custody during the “Jasmine Revolution” crackdown in February 2011.
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Chen Guangcheng, a rural “barefoot lawyer,” campaigned for the rights of villagers and the disabled. He provided free legal consultation to these groups from 1996 until he was detained in the fall of 2005, after he and his wife began to investigate villagers’ claims of excessive violence in the implementation (read more…)
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