People Archive

CNHRA-P-778685

Writer and democracy advocate

Wei Jingsheng, formerly an electrician at Beijing Zoo, participated in Beijing’s Democracy Wall movement. In 1978 he published The Fifth Modernization: Democracy and founded and edited the unofficial journal Exploration, joining public debate on political reform in China. The foundation’s 2002 biography describes Wei’s Cultural Revolution travels, farming in Anhui and military service before his zoo job. The Fifth Modernization asks how those in power should be held accountable to the people. Wei argued that modernization in industry, agriculture, defense, and science and technology should be accompanied by political rights and public participation in decisions affecting people’s lives. Sentenced to fifteen years in 1979, Wei continued expressing his views through prison letters. Human Rights Watch reported prolonged solitary confinement and deteriorating health. After release in 1993, he resumed meeting activists and journalists and publishing essays. Detained again in 1994, he received a fourteen-year sentence the following year. He received the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize while imprisoned in 1996 and left China for the United States in 1997. His prison letters and other writings were collected as Courage to Stand Alone. In exile he continued writing and broadcasting, and helped establish the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition in 1998.

CNHRA-P-379395

Democracy activist

Wang Dan studied history at Peking University and participated in Beijing’s student movement in 1989. Following the crackdown, he was detained and sentenced in January 1991 to four years in prison and one year’s deprivation of political rights on counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement charges. After parole in February 1993, he continued writing and joined petitions concerning June Fourth and civil rights. Detained again in May 1995, he was held incommunicado. A 1996 indictment cited his writings, overseas assistance and contacts with other dissidents; that October he received an eleven-year sentence. On April 19, 1998, he traveled to the United States for medical evaluation. In his first statement from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, he thanked supporters and called for the release of other imprisoned democracy activists. After moving to the United States, Wang studied history at Harvard, researched Taiwan’s White Terror and completed his doctorate in 2008. He began teaching in Taiwan in 2009 and returned to the United States in 2017. In an interview that year, he reflected on his student years, two periods of imprisonment, and his studies and teaching abroad. Alongside teaching, Wang organized China salons for young students. In his 2017 interview he discussed helping found the New School for Democracy in 2012, with talks, online courses and salons. His books include his memoir of June Fourth and exile, Fifteen Lectures on PRC History and 80 Questions About China, drawn from salon discussions. On June 4, 2018, Dialogue China was launched in Washington. Wang spoke as its director about policy research and dialogue among different groups.

CNHRA-P-384107

Philosophy teacher and bereaved-families advocate

Ding Zilin, a former associate professor of philosophy at Renmin University of China, is a founding member of the Tiananmen Mothers. Her seventeen-year-old son Jiang Jielian died after leaving home on June 3, 1989. Her testimony describes his shooting near Muxidi and the family’s search and discovery of his death. In 1989, she began connecting with other bereaved families. Through visits and interviews, they recorded names, places of death and family experiences in writing and on video. The Tiananmen Mothers continued seeking truth, accountability, compensation and dialogue with the government. Ding recalled submitting a written statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1993, listing 48 people killed. With friends’ help, she published an account of her search in 1994, identifying 96 dead and 49 injured. The successive lists record the expanding reach of her investigations. In a 1999 essay, Ding recalled following leads with Zhang Xianling to find bereaved families. They recorded names, ages, occupations, places and circumstances of death, and family situations. She reported documenting 155 people by then, seeking identifiable witnesses behind each account. Alongside documentation and public letters, families have provided mutual and humanitarian support. In February 2025, Human Rights in China reported on a letter from Ding emphasizing the group’s autonomy and describing restrictions on international calls to her mobile and home phones. Some members of the Tiananmen Mothers gathered again on December 28, 2024. Their subsequent statement described visits to frail members, mutual care and efforts to find other bereaved families. Age and illness had made meetings and visits increasingly difficult.

CNHRA-P-691313

Human rights lawyer

Gao Zhisheng, born on April 20, 1964, is a lawyer who provided legal assistance to people on low incomes and worked on cases involving local corruption and religious belief. He later used open letters to criticize abuses against these groups. Gao also documented his legal work and family life in letters, diaries and memoirs. A China More Just appeared in English in 2007. In 2017, the ABA Section of International Law and Carolina Academic Press published Unwavering Convictions, his account of successive detentions and imprisonment. He faced restrictions on legal practice in 2005 following advocacy including open letters. A Beijing court sentenced him in 2006 to three years in prison, suspended for five years, for inciting subversion of state power. Subsequent detentions and loss of contact were examined in the Working Group’s 2010 opinion concerning his situation from February 2009. In written congressional testimony in 2023, Gao’s wife Geng He said the family had received no news of him since August 2017. She asked for telephone contact, visits and information about his whereabouts. Her testimony also recalled his 2007 open letter to Congress and the detention and abuse she said followed. His suspended sentence was revoked in 2011, and he was released on completion of the sentence in August 2014. His family reported another disappearance in August 2017. UN Special Procedures sought information in 2017 and 2025; China’s 2025 reply denied enforced disappearance.

CNHRA-P-539674

Self-trained legal advocate

Chen Guangcheng, born in 1971, is a blind rights advocate who taught himself law and assisted farmers with disabilities. An early encounter with law concerned taxes imposed on his own family. The Bush Center’s interview page and editorial biography recount his 1996 challenge to charges imposed despite an exemption. He continued learning through books and auditing classes and helped other villagers pursue complaints. In 2005, he and Yuan Weijing investigated accounts of coercive birth-quota enforcement in Linyi and prepared material for litigation. He was confined at home during the investigation. After formal arrest in 2006, Yinan County Court sentenced him to four years and three months. Linyi Intermediate Court subsequently set aside the judgment and ordered a retrial. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention separately examined the earlier confinement and subsequent detention. After completing his sentence on September 9, 2010, Chen was returned home, where his family remained under surveillance and confinement. His escape in April 2012 brought international attention to his family and those who helped him. UN Special Procedures sent an urgent appeal that May concerning reported threats and detentions. After moving to the United States, Chen recounted rural life, self-education, rights advocacy and his escape in The Barefoot Lawyer. The publisher lists the Picador paperback edition as released on March 1, 2016. On July 8, 2025, Chen took part in a Capitol Hill symposium marking ten years since the 709 crackdown, discussing China’s legal institutions. Catholic University’s event record describes his participation alongside scholars from its Center for Human Rights.

CNHRA-P-196704

Lawyer and civil-rights advocate

Ding entered Beihang in 1986 to study aircraft engines and later worked at Shenyang’s 606 Institute. He returned to Beihang for graduate study, qualified as a lawyer and resigned from an aviation research institute in June 1996 to enter law. After joining a law firm in 1997, he answered listeners’ legal questions through a radio programme. In his 2017 interview he said his engineering background helped with intellectual-property cases. He founded Dehong Law Firm in 2003 and led it until his detention in 2013. He later participated in the New Citizens Movement, advocating access to entrance examinations for migrant workers’ children where they lived and providing legal assistance and food to petitioners in Beijing. Detained in April 2013 over New Citizens Movement activities, Ding was sentenced the following year to three years and six months. He continued civic activities after completing that sentence in October 2016. After attending the Xiamen gathering in December 2019, he was taken into custody again and placed under residential surveillance at a designated location. The second case reached prosecution review in January 2021. After two rounds of supplementary investigation, prosecutors charged Ding with subversion of state power, including meetings, a website and training activities among their allegations. In April 2023 he was sentenced to twelve years in prison and three years’ deprivation of political rights for subversion of state power. China’s reply to the UN records the rejection of his appeal on November 24 that year. UN Special Procedures subsequently sought information on visits, medical care and detention conditions. In congressional testimony on February 1, 2024, Sophie Luo said the family learned that he had been transferred to Jiangbei Prison in Hubei in November 2023. She also reported that the families had not received the judgments at the time of the hearing.

CNHRA-P-229675

Human rights lawyer and legal advocate

Teng Biao is a human rights lawyer and legal advocate. Following Sun Zhigang’s death in 2003, he joined Xu Zhiyong and Yu Jiang in seeking constitutional review of custody-and-repatriation regulations. In The Last Ten Years, Xu recalls sending the proposal on May 14 that year. Teng earned a law doctorate at Peking University, taught at China University of Political Science and Law, and co-founded Gongmeng and China Against the Death Penalty. His legal work and research concern criminal justice, capital punishment, human rights, social movements and transnational repression. Teng continued teaching and research abroad. FAU’s biography lists a visiting professorship at Chicago, a human-rights scholar appointment at Hunter College, and fellowships at NYU, Harvard, Yale and Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. His work also encompasses civil-society organizations, death-penalty abolition and transnational repression. He continued rights-defense and democracy advocacy. During his disappearance from contact in 2011, UN Special Procedures sent an urgent appeal seeking information including his place of detention. Human Rights Watch reported his reappearance on April 29 after sixty-nine days. On June 28, 2017, he testified before the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, describing restrictions on legal practice, teaching and travel, secret detention and pressure on his wife and daughter. He also discussed organizing China Human Rights Lawyers Day. On November 19, 2025, Teng spoke at FAU’s human rights colloquium on digital surveillance and Chinese civil society, with Daniel Sprick as discussant.

CNHRA-P-849649

Public-interest lawyer

Pu Zhiqiang is a lawyer who participated in the 1989 Beijing protests and later took on public-interest cases involving freedom of expression. His clients included Ai Weiwei, victims of reeducation through labor and people alleging abuse during corruption investigations. Pu’s expression-related work also involved writers and journalists. Index on Censorship’s 2016 profile names Chen Guidi, Chun Tao and Zhang Yihe among his clients, and quotes Hu Yong on his defense of villagers, journalists and media outlets facing defamation accusations. Pu was shortlisted for its freedom of expression awards that year. In 2012, Pu represented Ren Jianyu in a suit against Chongqing’s reeducation-through-labor committee and attended the October 10 hearing. The committee later revoked its decision, but the court dismissed the suit on November 20 as late-filed. The public ruling records Pu’s representation. On May 3, 2014, he attended a private June Fourth commemoration in Beijing. Front Line Defenders reported a police summons late the following night, a search on May 5 and formal arrest on June 13. The eventual case concerned seven online posts critical of policies and officials. On December 22, 2015, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to three years in prison, suspended for three years. Front Line Defenders reported that he left the detention center that day for a police-designated residence under surveillance and that the conviction prevented further legal practice. The official sentencing report also stated that he confessed, expressed remorse and would not appeal. On April 14, 2016, Pu received the Beijing justice bureau’s decision revoking his legal practice certificate, dated April 13. He subsequently wrote on social media about the end of his nineteen years in legal practice.

CNHRA-P-226063

Human rights lawyer

Wang Quanzhang is a human rights lawyer whose work included cases involving belief, housing and other civil rights, as well as grassroots legal training. Detained during the 709 crackdown in 2015, he was kept from normal contact with his family and their chosen lawyers. Wang graduated from Shandong University Law School in 2000. CHRD records his representation of Ni Yulan, journalist Qi Chonghuai and New Citizens Movement participants, as well as writing or coauthoring studies on lawyers in democratic movements and on the internet and civil society. In April 2013, while defending a Falun Gong case in Jingjiang, Jiangsu, Wang challenged allegedly unlawful evidence. Amnesty International reports that the judge then ordered ten days of detention; he was released after approximately forty-eight hours. His wife Li Wenzu repeatedly sought information at courts and detention facilities and began a march from Beijing toward Tianjin in 2018. That year the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention examined his detention and defense rights and found the detention under review arbitrary. His trial was held behind closed doors in December 2018, and he received a four-and-a-half-year sentence in January 2019. After leaving prison on April 5, 2020, he was first taken to Jinan. A letter from Li published that May confirmed his subsequent return to the family home. The Secretary-General’s 2024 report recounts repeated displacement of Wang and Li Wenzu from April 2023 after reported police pressure on landlords and hotels. It also reports disruption to their child’s schooling.

CNHRA-P-139332

Civil-rights advocate

Li Wenzu is a human rights defender. After her husband Wang Quanzhang was detained in the 709 crackdown in 2015, she repeatedly sought information and remedies, demanding disclosure of his whereabouts, family and lawyer visits, and protection of his defense rights. The Edelstam Foundation’s biography records Li’s secondary education in Badong, Hubei, and her move to Beijing for work at 24, where she met Wang Quanzhang. Before his detention she mainly cared for their child. She subsequently used information requests and litigation while visiting affected families with other relatives. After her husband’s detention, Li and other relatives, including Wang Qiaoling, built a support network among 709 families. They visited affected households, filed complaints and assisted one another. On July 7, 2017, they held a red bucket protest outside the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, seeking visits and information about the cases. She submitted materials to courts, sought visits at detention centers and publicly opposed the appointment of lawyers without family consent. On April 4, 2018, she began a planned one-hundred-kilometer walk from Beijing to Tianjin to find her husband. Human Rights Watch reported her interception, return to Beijing and a subsequent blockade of her home. After Wang left prison in April 2020, she reported that he had been taken to Jinan and had not rejoined the family. Amnesty International Luxembourg published her letter in May confirming his return home and calling for surveillance of the family to end. The Secretary-General’s 2024 report recounts repeated displacement of Li and Wang Quanzhang from April 2023, interference with hotel accommodation and disruption to their child’s enrollment and attendance at school.

CNHRA-P-016145

Human rights lawyer

Jiang Tianyong is a human rights lawyer who supported rights-defense work and the families of detained lawyers. In 2011, UN Special Procedures sought information concerning reports that he had been taken away. Jiang began practicing in Beijing in late 2004; Chen Guangcheng was among his early clients. The IBA records legal assistance for people infected with HIV through transfusions, victims of unlawful land seizures, and people facing discrimination because of health, gender or age. After losing his legal practice license, Jiang continued helping detainees and their families. In 2014 he investigated an unofficial detention facility in Heilongjiang. In May 2016 he joined a relay hunger strike supporting the imprisoned Guo Feixiong and calling for a medical examination. On November 21, 2016, he disappeared from contact while returning from Changsha after visiting Xie Yang’s family. Relatives and lawyers sought him, and in December the family received a Changsha police notice of residential surveillance at a designated location. Their chosen lawyers subsequently faced restrictions on access and representation. A Changsha court tried him in August 2017 and sentenced him to two years that November. A 2018 Working Group opinion found the detention under review arbitrary. China later informed the UN that he completed his sentence on February 28, 2019. On November 3, 2022, Jiang’s wife Jin Bianling accepted the IBA human rights award for him in Miami. In prerecorded remarks, he described continuing restrictions on travel, medical access and reunion with his family after release. The Secretary-General’s 2024 report records a reported refusal to renew Jiang’s passport in May 2023 and continuing surveillance. In July 2024, China replied that he was not subject to judicial coercive measures.

CNHRA-P-289181

Human rights lawyer

Li Heping is a lawyer handling human rights and public-interest cases. He defended members of the New Youth Study Group in 2002 and later represented environmental advocates, religious figures and prosecuted lawyers, while campaigning against torture. His clients included villagers affected by land seizures, people facing restrictions on religious belief, and rights advocates including Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng. The CCBE awarded him its human rights prize in 2008. On November 27 that year, he was stopped at Beijing airport while traveling to Brussels to receive it. In a 2010 interview with Ai Weiwei, Li recalled how defending Yang Zili led him to examine the relationship between criminal defense and political rights. In 2005 he joined Gao Zhisheng and others in helping Zhu Jiuhu, detained after representing private oil-well owners in northern Shaanxi. Li described the satisfaction of successful advocacy as a reason to remain a lawyer. Front Line Defenders reported his abduction and beating in 2007, refusal to renew his license in 2009 and disappearance from contact in 2011. Beijing police took him away on July 10, 2015. Family and chosen lawyers were denied visits, and authorities disclosed his detention in Tianjin only in January 2016. His trial was held behind closed doors on April 25, 2017. Three days later the court announced a three-year prison term suspended for four years. His wife learned of the hearing after it ended. He returned home on May 10; Front Line Defenders reported close surveillance at that time. The Secretary-General’s 2024 report records the lifting of Li’s suspended-sentence restrictions on May 8, 2021. It reports that his wife and daughter were prevented from boarding an international flight in June 2023 and subsequently questioned. China replied in July 2024 that Li and Wang Qiaoling were not subject to judicial coercive measures.

CNHRA-P-116021

Economist

Ilham Tohti is a Uyghur economist who taught at Minzu University of China. He founded Uighur Online to discuss social, cultural and policy issues in Xinjiang and encourage exchanges between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. In his 2011 autobiographical essay, Tohti described researching Xinjiang’s social and economic conditions from 1994 and funding his own fieldwork. He also studied sociology, ethnology and Central Asia. Despite restrictions on teaching between 1999 and 2003, he wished to remain in academic life and provide space for exchange between ethnic communities. Tohti also used Uighur Online to address the situation of Uyghur children trafficked or stranded in inland cities. In his account, the website connected with civic groups to seek assistance and legal support. Unemployment, discrimination and gaps in understanding between ethnic communities were central concerns of his research and public discussion. In February 2013, he and his daughter were stopped at Beijing Capital Airport. She was allowed to travel to the United States, while he was prevented from leaving. Police detained him at home in Beijing on January 15, 2014, transferred him to Urumqi and formally arrested him on February 25. He received a life sentence for separatism that September. In 2019, the European Parliament awarded him the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. UN Special Procedures sought information on visits and health in 2025; China replied that he was serving his sentence in Xinjiang No. 1 Prison and that his rights were protected.

CNHRA-P-119780

Human rights website founder and citizen journalist

Huang Qi founded 64 Tianwang in 1998, initially working on missing people and trafficking before expanding its coverage to rights violations and public complaints. 64 Tianwang developed a network of citizen journalists documenting complaints and protests. RSF awarded Huang its Cyber-Dissident Prize in 2004 and the website its media-category Press Freedom Prize in 2016. Its award profile also documented arrests of reporters and cyberattacks on the site. Detained in 2000 over material published on the site, Huang was sentenced to five years in 2003. The UN Working Group later found his detention in that case violated freedom of expression. After the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, he investigated collapsed schools and construction quality. Detained that June, he was tried behind closed doors in 2009 and sentenced to three years on a state-secrets possession charge. He was detained again in November 2016 and sentenced to twelve years in 2019. His mother Pu Wenqing publicly sought remedies, while lawyers raised issues of access, case files and health. China’s 2025 reply stated that he was serving his sentence in Bazhong Prison, Sichuan; UN Special Procedures sought information on visits and medical care.

CNHRA-P-252108

Citizen journalist

Before traveling to Wuhan, Zhang wrote, posted online and displayed placards concerning the Hong Kong protests. UN Opinion No. 25/2021 records an earlier detention in September 2019 and release on November 26 that year. Zhang Zhan is a citizen journalist and former lawyer. In February 2020 she traveled to Wuhan, publishing videos and commentary about residents, hospitals and pandemic-control measures during the lockdown. Zhang distributed reports through WeChat, Twitter and YouTube, including accounts of other independent reporters’ detention and interference with bereaved families seeking accountability. Her personal accounts carried observations beyond Wuhan. In 2021, RSF awarded her its Press Freedom Prize for Courage. Her arrest was approved in June 2020, followed by indictment in September and a four-year sentence on December 28. A 2025 UN Special Procedures communication reviewed the first case and transmitted accounts of a hunger strike, forced feeding and health concerns. After completing the sentence in May 2024, she was subjected to criminal coercive measures again on August 29. China’s 2026 reply records a second four-year sentence for picking quarrels and provoking trouble on September 19, 2025, upheld on October 27, and a subsequent transfer to Shanghai Women’s Prison.

CNHRA-P-379981

Labor and women’s rights researcher

Li Qiaochu is a researcher on labor and gender and a feminist advocate. Her work concerns workers, migrants, women and detained rights defenders. During the displacement of migrant workers in Beijing in 2017, she compiled and circulated employment and housing information. From 2018, Li collected sexual-harassment cases and published accounts online. Early in the pandemic she joined volunteers distributing free masks to Beijing sanitation workers, helped pregnant women in quarantine areas find doctors, and organized support for people experiencing domestic violence. Li was taken from a Beijing residence on February 16, 2020, placed under residential surveillance at a designated location and returned home on June 19. In 120 Days in Secret Detention, she described prolonged enforced sitting, continuous lighting and questioning, and recalled her work coordinating Wuhan pandemic volunteers before detention. In 2020 she accepted the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award on behalf of the detained Xu Zhiyong, calling for continued attention to free expression and civil rights. PEN America preserves her acceptance remarks. Before she was taken into custody again in February 2021, Li had publicly described alleged abuse of Xu Zhiyong and raised the issue with authorities in Linyi. Her family and lawyers subsequently sought visits, bail and medical care. In February 2024 she received three years and eight months in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights. Front Line Defenders reported that the court cited her assistance with Xu Zhiyong’s blog. The judgment was upheld on July 26, and she returned home to Beijing on August 3 after completing the sentence. In October 2025, Li described difficulties corresponding with Xu Zhiyong: a July letter required revision but remained undelivered after resubmission, prompting multiple applications and legal submissions.

CNHRA-P-294086

Journalist and women’s rights advocate

Huang Xueqin is a journalist and #MeToo advocate. In a 2019 interview she recalled interning at China News Service in 2009, working at its Guangzhou branch after graduation, and reporting for New Express from 2013 to 2015 before independent journalism and anti-harassment work. In her oral history, Huang recalled that discussions with women journalists during a 2017 visit to the National University of Singapore helped prompt her survey. She later connected interviewees with lawyers, psychological support and other resources, and participated in gender-awareness training for lawyers. Between October 20 and November 25, 2017, Huang surveyed women journalists and collected 416 valid responses. Of those respondents, 83.7 percent reported sexual harassment. Published in March 2018, the report combined questionnaires and interviews to examine newsroom power, barriers to complaints and prevention measures. The percentage describes the participating sample. She was detained in October 2019, subsequently placed under residential surveillance at a designated location and released in 2020. She and labor activist Wang Jianbing were taken away in Guangzhou on September 19, 2021. Their case was tried in September 2023, and she received a five-year sentence in June 2024. Her appeal was rejected in September 2024; supplementary penalties included four years’ deprivation of political rights and confiscation of 100,000 yuan. The Rights Practice’s October 5, 2026 update reports release on September 18.

CNHRA-P-041455

Human rights lawyer

Wang Yu is a lawyer who initially handled commercial matters and began human rights work in 2011. Her clients included feminist activists, Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti. In 2013 she traveled to Hainan to assist the families of six schoolgirls allegedly sexually assaulted by their headmaster. In 2014 she represented Cao Shunli. Her firm, Beijing Fengrui, handled several prominent human rights cases. Wang’s legal work drew recognition from international legal organizations. In 2016, the American Bar Association selected her for its inaugural International Human Rights Award, recognizing work on civil rights, judicial independence and defense rights. Front Line Defenders preserves the ABA president’s award statement. Early on July 9, 2015, she lost contact after messaging friends that power and internet at her home had been cut and people were trying to enter. Her husband Bao Longjun was also detained that day. The family received notice of formal arrest in January 2016. A recording in August said she had been released on bail; a lawyers’ organization subsequently still lacked direct contact with the couple. Beijing’s justice bureau cancelled Wang’s legal practice certificate on November 26, 2020. The Secretary-General’s 2024 report also recounts questioning after a March 2024 visit to Chen Jianfang and difficulties obtaining a passport. China replied that July that she was not subject to judicial coercive measures.

CNHRA-P-285811

Labor activist

Li Wangyang was a labor activist in Shaoyang, Hunan. He helped establish an autonomous workers’ federation there in 1989 and subsequently received a thirteen-year sentence. Amnesty International reported serious health problems during his imprisonment. Li was a factory worker in Shaoyang. Amnesty International’s 1997 profile records his leadership of the local Workers Autonomous Federation and his organization of strikes, demonstrations and speeches in 1989. During his first prison term, Li was released on medical grounds in 1996 but returned to prison while still receiving treatment. After another medical release in June 2000, he sought compensation for mistreatment in prison to pay for medical care. In February 2001 he undertook a twenty-two-day hunger strike over those demands. Li was detained again in May 2001 and subsequently sentenced to ten years. He completed the sentence in May 2011. He was found dead in a Shaoyang hospital on June 6, 2012. Authorities described the death as suicide, which family and friends disputed. An autopsy and cremation followed. Amnesty International called for an independent investigation and issued an urgent action concerning relatives who had disappeared from contact.

CNHRA-P-974097

Writer · Literary Critic · Scholar

Liu Xiaobo (December 28, 1955–July 13, 2017) was a Chinese writer, literary critic and scholar. He received a doctorate in 1988, taught at Beijing Normal University, and held visiting academic appointments in Europe and the United States. In 1989 he returned from the United States to join the Tiananmen protests. In early June he joined Hou Dejian, Zhou Duo and Gao Xin in a hunger strike and participated in negotiations for the withdrawal of protesters remaining in the Square. He was subsequently detained; in 1991 he was found guilty of counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement but exempted from criminal punishment. In 1996, Liu was assigned three years of re-education through labor in connection with political expression. He helped draft Charter 08 in 2008, calling for constitutional reform, democracy and human-rights protections. Police took him away that December and formally arrested him in June 2009. In December 2009, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to eleven years in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights for inciting subversion of state power. Liu and his counsel argued that the essays and charter were protected civic expression, not crimes. The appellate court upheld the sentence. Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize while imprisoned and could not attend the ceremony in Norway. He received medical parole for advanced liver cancer in 2017 and died in Shenyang on July 13.

CNHRA-P-583207

Legal Scholar · Civil Rights Advocate

Xu Zhiyong, born on March 2, 1973, is a legal scholar. Through Gongmeng’s legal assistance and public-interest work, he addressed educational opportunities for migrant workers’ children, officials’ asset disclosure and civic participation. He later participated in the New Citizens Movement. After Sun Zhigang’s death in 2003, Xu, Yu Jiang and Teng Biao jointly called on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee to review the custody-and-repatriation regulations. Xu later recounted this initiative in his memoir The Past Ten Years. Gongmeng combined casework and investigation. In The Last Ten Years, Xu recalled defending Southern Metropolis Daily executive Yu Huafeng, seeking administrative compensation for Shanxi brick-kiln victims in 2007, and organizing legal assistance for families affected by melamine-tainted milk in 2008. He also served as a Haidian District people’s congress representative. In China Needs a New Citizens Movement, dated May 29, 2012, Xu articulated freedom, justice and love. Starting with everyday conduct, he urged citizens to speak publicly and take part in public affairs, promoting equality and oversight of power. An authorized English translation appeared that July. In 2013, Xu faced criminal prosecution in connection with his public activities. In January 2014, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced him to four years in prison for 'gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.' He was released upon completing his sentence on July 15, 2017. Xu subsequently continued participating in activities concerning civil rights and public affairs. In February 2020, he was detained again. In April 2023, the Linyi Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Shandong Province sentenced him to 14 years in prison and four years' deprivation of political rights for 'subversion of state power.' According to a Chinese government reply submitted to the United Nations in 2025, the Shandong High People's Court upheld the judgment on appeal in November 2023. The reply does not provide the appellate ruling in full or specify its exact date. In congressional testimony on February 1, 2024, Sophie Luo said the family learned that he had been transferred to Lunan Prison in Shandong in November 2023. She also reported that the families had not received the judgments at the time of the hearing. Li Qiaochu’s October 2025 account describes a letter to Lunan Prison withheld after revision, followed by information requests, a request for prosecutorial oversight and administrative reconsideration.

CNHRA-P-326184

Designer

Sun Zhigang came from Hubei and studied art and design, graduating from Wuhan University of Science and Engineering (武汉科技学院) in 2001. He worked in Shenzhen before taking a design job with a clothing company in Guangzhou in early 2003. The contemporary April 25 investigation reported that he had been working in Guangzhou for only a little over twenty days when he was taken away. In a CCTV interview, Nanfang Metropolis Daily reporter Wang Lei relayed the family’s recollection that Sun hoped his work would repay debts incurred during his education and improve their living conditions. This account is attributed to the reporter’s family interviews. In the CCTV interview, Wang Lei further relayed the family’s circumstances: Sun’s father worked as a carpenter, his mother farmed, and the family had incurred debts for his education. His father recalled Sun’s hope, expressed during a visit home, to repay those debts through work and improve the family’s housing and living conditions. These are relatives’ memories conveyed by the reporter, rather than a written personal account by Sun. Sun studied art and design and made a self-portrait. The April 25 report presented him through that picture kept by his family, and CCTV later used it when recalling his education and efforts to earn a living. His design work, move away from home for employment and the artwork preserved by relatives are traces of his personal life available in the public record.

CNHRA-P-491862

Peng Lifa is also known in public reporting by the online name Peng Zaizhou. He became widely known as the person identified with the 2022 Sitong Bridge protest in Beijing. Human Rights Watch’s 2024 statement notes that authorities had not disclosed the protester’s identity; RFA’s early 2022 report also explicitly could not independently verify the association. CNHRA uses the publicly reported name for one person record while retaining these limitations. Unverified birth dates, occupation, employer and family details are not supplied. “Bridge Man” and similar descriptions are public epithets, not formal names. HRW’s 2024 retrospective situates the expression in Beijing under strict pandemic controls shortly before the Communist Party’s twentieth congress. The banners linked everyday needs with freedom, dignity, reform and voting rights and directly criticized political leadership. The organization records continued circulation despite censorship. This documents the protest and its reception, without establishing the protester’s earlier employment or private life. The profile therefore follows the public expression and subsequent circumstances through reporting from the scene in 2022, disappearance concerns in 2024 and sentencing reports from 2025 onward. These have different sources and verification limits. The association between Peng Lifa and the online name Peng Zaizhou remains attributed to public reporting; epithets, circulating biographies and repeated reports are not treated automatically as independently documented identity records.

CNHRA-P-684295

Business executive (retired)

Ren Zhiqiang was born on March 8, 1951 and formerly headed Huayuan Group and Huayuan Property. His commentary on housing prices, regulation and public policy, delivered through industry meetings, interviews and Weibo, earned the media nickname “The Cannon.” After rural placement in Shaanxi and military service, he entered business in 1981. His Huayuan career began in 1984, progressing through construction and management to leadership of the group and listed property company. He retired in 2015. Ren also participated in environmental philanthropy and reading activities, serving as president of Alxa SEE. His memoir Yexin Youya appeared in 2013; interviews described writing as a response to public controversy. Public statements brought account closure and Party discipline in 2016. In 2020 he received an 18-year sentence for four economic offenses. HRW argued that the prosecution suppressed criticism and raised procedural concerns. Subsequent family appeals and medical reporting drew attention to health and treatment in custody.