China: End Long-Term Imprisonment of Human Rights Defenders
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(中文版本)
On International Human Rights Day, CHRD Calls for End of Wrongful Punishment
(Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders—December 9, 2025) On International Human Rights Day, December 10, CHRD calls on the Chinese government to end its practice of long-term imprisonment of human rights defenders (HRDs). Authorities impose prison sentences of 10 years or longer to silence peaceful dissent, and to try to ensure that these people and their struggles are forgotten.
CHRD is highlighting 10 imprisoned defenders this International Human Rights Day to draw attention to broader government repression. These abuses target Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Hongkongers defending their communities’ rights, advocates for rule of law and civil society, those documenting human rights abuses, and artists and writers using cultural expression to defend their identity.
“The Chinese government wants us to forget these courageous defenders by locking them away for a decade or for life,” said Angeli Datt, Research and Advocacy Coordinator at CHRD. “We can challenge that by celebrating their work and demanding their release.”
The whereabouts of four of these HRDs are unknown because Chinese authorities refuse to disclose this information, effectively forcibly disappearing them. Six of these HRDs’ current health status and conditions in prison, such as access to nutritious food, clean water, and fresh air, are unknown.
Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, has voiced continuous concern about the long-term imprisonment of HRDs in China since 2021.
“Long-term imprisonment is one of the cruellest forms of punishment human rights defenders can face for their peaceful activism, and has profound impacts on their mental and physical well-being,” said Mary Lawlor. “It is made all the worse when authorities refuse to inform family members where their loved ones are being held, subjecting them to the further cruelty of not knowing the health situation of their relative, and preventing them from providing supplies or warm clothes.”
For years, CHRD has documented torture and ill-treatment in Chinese prisons, including the deprivation of adequate medical treatment, blocking HRD prisoners from communicating with their family members, and harsh and unhygienic conditions. Such practices violate domestic laws and international human rights obligations.
“Once again I call on the Chinese authorities to adhere to its international human rights commitments and release all those detained for exercising their right to defend human rights,” Lawlor said.
Extreme, discriminatory mistreatment
CHRD’s database of prisoners of conscience since 2019 has compiled over 4,000 individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, many for periods longer than 10+ years. Prisoners of conscience are people imprisoned for peacefully exercising or defending human rights, and includes HRDs, Tibetans, Uyghurs, other ethnic groups, and religious believers such as Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. These individuals have often been denied the right to a fair trial, including access to a lawyer of their choice, to review the evidence being used against them, and to be free from torture and ill-treatment. There is no publicly available evidence that the activities of any of these individuals broke any laws that meet international human rights standards.
CHRD has determined that:
- Chinese authorities sentenced 245 prisoners of conscience to long-term imprisonment. Of these:
- 150 were sentenced since 2015 and 95 sentenced before 2015.
- 196 are men and 49 are women.
- 59 individuals have been released at the completion of these sentences, though many of them face ongoing surveillance or restrictions on their rights.
- 8 prisoners of conscience have died in detention while serving long-term prison sentences due to torture, ill-treatment, and medical neglect in violation of Chinese and international law. CHRD is unaware of any investigations or prosecutions of these deaths in detention or other deaths in detention that we have documented. A failure to investigate a death in detention would constitute additional violations of Chinese and international law.
Details of those currently imprisoned:
- 178 prisoners of conscience are currently serving long-term imprisonment sentences
- 65 individuals are Uyghurs (36) and Kazakhs (29), or 36% of the total, despite those communities’ making up less than 1% of China’s population. Many had been held in “re-education” camps—arbitrary detention facilities—before being handed long prison sentences on baseless charges that related to their ethnic and religious identities or their efforts to defend human rights.
- Individuals persecuted for their religious beliefs make up 58 of the those currently detained, including Falun Gong practitioners (41), Christians (16), and Buddhists (1). Some Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Tibetans faced prosecution for their religious beliefs as Muslims or Buddhists but are counted separately due to intersecting persecution based on their ethnic and religious identities.
- 26 Tibetans are currently serving long-term prison sentences, or 14% of the total despite making up just 0.5% of the population of China.
- 21 HRDs, including human rights lawyers, writers, journalists, researchers, NGO leaders and activists, are currently serving long-term prison sentences.
Sentencing breakdown for long-term imprisonment:
- Authorities handed down 15 life sentences and six death sentences suspended for two-years; 17—or 80%—of these were imposed on Uyghurs and Tibetans.
- 18 individuals received sentences of between 20-25 years in prison; 133 received sentences of between 10-20 years; and 73 received 10-year sentences.
Details on criminal charges:
The criminal charges, when known, that were frequently used to convict individuals and sentence them to long-term prison sentences included:
- Endangering national security, including “subversion” and “separatism.”
- Leaking or disseminating overseas state secrets.
- Organizing, joining, participating or supporting a terrorist organization, possession of terrorist materials, or promoting extremism.
- Inciting ethnic hatred or discrimination
- “Illegal religious activities” and “using a cult to undermine law enforcement.”
- “Fraud,” “extortion,” or “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” combined with multiple charges.
For more details on the Chinese government’s systematic use of arbitrary detention against individuals in China exercising or defending human rights, see CHRD’s March 2025 report, “In a Prison Cell Waiting for Daybreak.”
Campaign for release of 10 HRDs held in long-term imprisonment
The ten individuals listed below were all prosecuted in retaliation for their human rights defense efforts, and all given long-term sentences in violation of international law.
Ilham Tohti is a Uyghur professor who has been serving a life sentence since 2014 for peacefully advocating for the rights of Uyghurs, including by establishing a website to promote better understanding between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) declared in 2014 that he is being arbitrarily detained, and called on the Chinese government to release him. Ilham Tohti has been ill-treated in prison but his current conditions in Prison No. 1 of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are unknown; the Chinese government has failed to provide concrete information on his current status in response to UN requests in April 2021 and February 2025, and blocked his daughter from communicating with him.
In 2016, when accepting the Martin Ennals Award on her father’s behalf, Jewher Ilham said:
“My father Ilham Tohti has used only one weapon in his struggle for the basic rights of the Uyghurs of Xinjiang: Words; spoken, written, distributed, and posted. This is all he has ever had at his disposal, and all that he has ever needed. And this is what China found so threatening. A person like him doesn’t deserve to be in prison for even a day.”
Rahile Dawut is a Uyghur scholar and world-renowned expert on Uyghur folklore and culture. Authorities forcibly disappeared her in 2017, and in 2023 the organization Dui Hua announced that it had confirmed she had been sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of “separatism.” She is the only woman HRD that CHRD is aware of sentenced to life imprisonment in China. In September and October 2025, UN human rights experts expressed serious concern about her abduction and enforced disappearance and the Chinese government’s criminalisation of Uyghur cultural expression. Information on her current status or whereabouts is unknown.
In 2020, after accepting the Courage to Think award on behalf of her mother, Akida Pulati said:
“My mother is a scholar, not a criminal. She studies the folklore and cultural traditions of minority populations. That is not a threat to the government, other institutions, or the people of China.”
Choegyal Wangpo is a Tibetan monk from the Tengdro Monastery. In September 2020, the Shigatse Intermediate Court in Tibet sentenced Choegyal Wangpo to 20 years in prison on unknown charges during a secret trial for sending money to Tibetans in Nepal affected by the 2015 earthquake. Choegyal Wangpo had accidentally left his phone in a café in Lhasa, leading Chinese authorities to search it and discover messages about the donations; such financial transfers are legal under Chinese law.
Chinese authorities beat him and raided his monastery to detain other Tibetans, ultimately sentencing four of them for having photos of the Dalai Lama or contacts with Tibetans abroad, including sending donations to their sister monastery in Nepal. His current status and whereabouts are unknown.
Kunchok Nyima is a Tibetan monk and scholar from the Drepung Monastery. The Lhasa Intermediate Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison in 2010 in connection with a peaceful protest in 2008 by monks from his monastery. The exact charges remain unknown, but the court reportedly accused him of “inciting” other monks from Drepung Monastery to protest and being the “ring leader” of protests in Lhasa. Chinese authorities forcibly disappeared him during widespread protests across Tibet in 2008; those marked the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising against China’s invasion of Tibet. Kunchok Nyima’s whereabouts and condition remain unknown; as far as CHRD is aware his family members have never been given such information.
A former student of his told the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in 2013,
“The sentencing and disappearing of Venerable Kunchok Nyima, who was a highly accomplished Buddhist master with thousands of disciples, is an attack on the core of living Tibetan culture, religion, language and identity.”
Gulmira Imin is a Uyghur writer, poet, and contributor to the Uyghur-language website Salkin, which covered culture and news. The Urumqi Intermediate Court sentenced her to life in prison in 2010 on charges of “separatism,” “leaking state secrets,” and “organizing an illegal demonstration” for taking part in a protest in Urumqi in 2009, and for communicating with her husband, who was abroad. Her sentence was later reduced to 19 years and eight months. She had contributed poetry and short stories to Salkin that were critical of the Chinese government’s policies.
The WGAD determined in 2012 that her detention was arbitrary and called on the Chinese government to release her. She is being held at the Xinjiang No. 2 Prison for women in Urumqi and is reportedly allowed one family visit every three months. In 2012, she received the the Hellman/Hammett award in recognition of her efforts to promote free expression despite government persecution.
Gangkye Drubpa Kyab is a Tibetan writer and teacher whose published works include a book detailing the 2008 protests, A Year Written in Blood. Police in Kardze, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province arrested Gangkye Drubpa Kyab in March 2021, and in September 2022 the Karze Intermediate Court sentenced him to 14 years in prison on charges of “inciting separatism.” Gangkye Drubpa Kyab had previously been sentenced to prison on national security charges for his advocacy for Tibetans’ rights. During that sentence, prison officials tortured and ill-treated him, resulting in multiple health complications. His current status and whereabouts are unknown.
In 2013, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy translated one of Gangkye Drubpa Kyab’s poems:
Tears of the Past
The history of the Snow-landers
When I think of it now, all I get is tears
No moments of joy occur in our hearts
When all we do now is swallow tears
In the midst of illusory history
And the war of the brazen reds
Countless Tibetan lives have been lost
Ah, this suffering!
Amid the war of the past
Our protector exiled behind the snow-mountains
The red terror tramples upon the Tibetan people
Who can endure the present loss?
Xu Zhiyong is a legal scholar and prominent human rights activist. In 2023, the Linshu Court in Shandong Province sentenced Xu to 14 years in prison on charges of “subversion” for advocating with human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi for rule of law and civil rights reforms based on China’s laws and constitution. Police forcibly disappeared him for over a year in residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL), a form of secret detention, during which he was subjected to torture. In 2020, the WGAD determined he is being arbitrarily detained and called on China to release him. Xu Zhiyong is being held at Lunan Prison, Shandong Province where he went on a hunger strike in October 2024 to protest cruel and inhuman treatment.
After being sentenced in 2023, Xu Zhiyong wrote a letter of appeal to the people of China:
“We owe our gratitude to all who have struggled for freedom, democracy, justice, and dignity.”
Huang Qi is the founder and director of the website 64 Tianwang Human Rights Center which documented rights abuses in China. In 2019, the Mianyang City Intermediate Court sentenced Huang to 12 years in prison on charges of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities” and “intentionally leaking state secrets” for posting online a government document that listed him as a target for an upcoming crackdown. It was not until after Huang had posted the document that it was retroactively classified as a “state secret.” Huang Qi is being held at Bazhong Prison, Sichuan Province, and has been tortured and ill-treated in detention and prison, including being denied medical treatment.
In 2018, the WGAD determined he is being arbitrarily detained and called on Chinese authorities to release him. His current conditions are unknown because the Chinese government has failed to provide concrete information on his current status in response to UN requests in April 2021 and February 2025. His mother, Pu Wenqing, 91, has been diagnosed with cancer, and has repeatedly sought to visit her son but has not been allowed to do so, and she remains under close surveillance by the authorities.
In 2020, Pu Wenqing wrote a letter about her long-unsuccessful efforts to visit her son Huang Qi in prison:
“The case against Huang Qi is a miscarriage of justice — everyone in China who has a sense of justice knows this.
My goal is simply to see Huang Qi once. I want to understand what his situation in prison is really like — how his illness is, what the medical situation is, what kind of treatment he’s receiving inside. I just want to understand these things. I don’t expect to see him released; I just hope he’s doing okay in there and can get through this period safely.”
Ding Jiaxi is a human rights lawyer and prominent activist. In 2023, the Linshu Court in Shandong Province sentenced Ding to 12 years in prison on charges of “subversion” for advocating with legal scholar Xu Zhiyong for rule of law and civil rights reforms based on China’s laws and constitution. Police forcibly disappeared him for over a year in RSDL, during which he was subjected to torture. Sophie Luo, a human rights activist and wife of Ding Jiaxi, has repeatedly raised alarm over the deprivation of her right to communicate with her husband while he is being held in Jiangbei Prison, Hubei Province, and the restrictions on families’ rights to communicate with their imprisoned loved ones. The Chinese government falsely claimed to the UN in response to a February 2025 letter that Ding Jiaxi’s rights were being protected.
Ahead of the sentencing hearing in 2023, a prewritten statement from Ding Jiaxi was released, explaining:
“All Chinese who care about our country’s future must shoulder the historical responsibility of our generation, which is to eradicate autocracy and build a beautiful China….As long as we work as one, the light of freedom, democracy and the rule of law will surely shine on the land of China!”
Benny Tai is a Hong Kong law professor, co-founder of the non-violent civil disobedience movement Occupy Central with Peace and Love, and key organiser of unofficial primary election amongst opposition parties ahead of the 2020 Legislative Council election. In November 2024, Hong Kong’s High Court sentenced Tai to 10 years in prison on charges of “conspiracy to commit subversion” under the National Security Law (NSL) for his role in the unofficial primary election. The court accused Tai of being a “principal offender” and “mastermind.” To date, he has received the heaviest sentence of any individual in Hong Kong convicted under the NSL.
In response to the sentencing of 45 individuals for taking part in the unofficial primary, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for a review of the cases, and for the sentences that do not meet international human rights standards to be quashed. The UN has called on Hong Kong to repeal the NSL and to refrain from applying it. Tai is reportedly being held at Stanley Prison.
In an opinion article in the New York Times published in 2018, Tai wrote:
“The onslaught against free speech…doesn’t seem to require making any offending statement at all.”
For more information, please contact:
Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director, Chinese Human Rights Defenders,
sophierichardson[at]nchrd.org, +1 917 721 7473
Angeli Datt, Research and Advocacy Coordinator, Chinese Human Rights Defenders,
angelidatt[at]nchrd.org, +1 934 444 6155
Shane Yi, Researcher, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, shaneyi[at]nchrd.org
