Portraits of Defenders | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

CHRD Communiqué Alleging Arbitrary Detention of Huang Xueqin – December 19, 2019

January 10, 2020 Comments Off

Submission to: Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Communiqué on Behalf of HUANG Xueqin, Citizen of the People’s Republic (read more…)

Huang Yunmin 黄云敏

January 10, 2020 Comments Off

Huang Yunmin, an ex-judge-turned-legal advocate from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, was sentenced to 10 years in prison following a trial in September 2017. Kashgar Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court convicted him of “organizing, leading, and actively participating in a terrorist organization.” Police in Tumxuk (图木舒克), a city in Kashgar Prefecture, (read more…)

He Fangmei 何方美

November 26, 2019 Comments Off

He Fangmei, an advocate for vaccination safety, was criminally detained in March 2019, after being forcibly returned to her home province of Henan from Beijing. Ms. He had been in Beijing demonstrating with other families whose children had been stricken with illness or disability due to faulty vaccines. Her detention (read more…)

Zhou Yuanzhi 周远志

November 18, 2019 Comments Off

Zhou Yuanzhi, a writer and editor from Hubei Province, was handed a four-and-half-year prison sentence in July 2019, for his alleged efforts to help petitioners organize to present grievances to Chinese authorities, and for making “politically sensitive” online comments. After Zhou was initially detained in November 2017, he was issued (read more…)

Cheng Yuan (程渊), Liu Dazhi (刘大志), Wu Gejianxiong (吴葛健雄)

August 20, 2019 Comments Off

Hunan Province police criminally detained three staff members of an anti-discrimination NGO in Changsha—Cheng Yuan, Liu Dazhi and Wuge Jianxiong—in July 2019 on suspicion of “subversion of state power.” The precise reason the men have been deprived of their liberty is unknown. They were initially disappeared, and lawyers and family (read more…)

Zhang Zhiru 张治儒

July 23, 2019 Comments Off

Zhang Zhiru 张治儒 (released) Criminal charge: Gathering a crowd to disrupt social order Length of Punishment: Three years, suspended for four years Court: Shenzhen Bao’an District Court Trial Date: April 24, 2020 Sentencing Date: April 24, 2020 Dates of Detention/Arrest: January 20, 2019 (detention); February 26, 2019 (formal arrest); May 7, 2020 (read more…)

Wu Guijun 吴贵军

July 23, 2019 Comments Off

Wu Guijun 吴贵军 (released) Criminal charge: Gathering a crowd to disrupt social order Length of Punishment: Three years, suspended for four years Court: Shenzhen Bao’an District Court Trial Date: Unknown Sentencing Date: Unknown Dates of Detention/Arrest: January 20, 2019 (detention); February 26, 2019 (formal arrest); April 22, 2020 (released) Place of Incarceration: Bao’an (read more…)

Ke Chengbing (柯成兵), Wei Zhili (危志立), Yang Zhengjun (杨郑君)

June 30, 2020 Comments Off

Ke Chengbing (柯成兵), Wei Zhili (危志立), Yang Zhengjun (杨郑君) (released) Ke Chengbing (left), Wei Zhili (center), Yang Zhengjun (right) Criminal charge: Picking quarrels and provoking trouble Length of Punishment: N/A Court: N/A Trial Date: N/A Sentencing Date: N/A Dates of Detention/Arrest: January-March 2019 (detention; see specific dates in text); February-April (Residential Surveillance in Designated Location, (read more…)

Fu Changguo 付常国

July 18, 2019 Comments Off

Fu Changguo 付常国 Criminal charge: Gathering a crowd to disturb public order Length of Punishment: N/A Court: N/A Trial Date: N/A Sentencing Date: N/A Dates of Detention/Arrest: August 10, 2018 (detention); September 8, 2018 (formal arrest) Place of Incarceration: Current location unknown; previously detained at Shenzhen City No. 2 Detention Center Background Fu Changguo, a staff member (read more…)

Chen Jianfang 陈建芳

May 31, 2019 Comments Off

Chen Jianfang 陈建芳 Criminal charge/s: “Subversion of state power” Length of Punishment: 4 years and 6 months Court: Shanghai No.1 Intermediate people’s court Trial Date: 19 March 2021 Appeal: August 5, 2022 (verdict) Sentencing Date: August 5, 2022 (verdict) Dates of Detention/Arrest: March 20, 2019 (enforced disappearance); May 22, 2019 (formal arrest); August 30, 2019 (read more…)

Xue Renyi 薛仁义

June 30, 2021 Comments Off

Xue Renyi 薛仁义 (released) Criminal charge: “Picking quarrels and provoking trouble” Length of Punishment: 3 years Court: N/A Trial Date: N/A Sentencing Date: N/A Dates of Detention/Arrest: May 1, 2018 (disappearance), July 31, 2019 (criminal detention); April 30, 2021 (released) Place of Incarceration: Dianjiang County Detention Center (Chongqing Municipality) Background Chongqing police forcibly disappeared activist Xue Renyi (薛仁义), (read more…)

Tsegon Gyal 次贡杰

May 16, 2019 Comments Off

Tsegon Gyal, a prominent ethnic Tibetan writer and activist, received a prison sentence in January 2018 in apparent punishment for comments he wrote on WeChat criticizing the Chinese government for failing to genuinely promote its policy of “ethnic unity.” The verdict came down over eight months after a Qinghai court (read more…)