Judicial Persecution · Full chronicle and history

The human rights organization Safeguard Defenders has released a new edition of the book 'The People's Republic of the Disappeared.' It includes first-hand accounts of secret detention under the 'Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location' (RSDL) system from Chinese rights lawyers, journalists, NGO workers, as well as Michael Kovrig, Cheng Lei, and Lee Ming-che, and offers a free PDF download.

The trial of Shenyang petitioner Fu Youling, charged with the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble, has opened; the prosecution recommended a fixed-term prison sentence of two years.

The Ministry of Justice, the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the National Health Commission, and the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration jointly issued standards defining the scope of serious illnesses and criteria for identifying inability to care for oneself for temporary execution of sentences outside prison.

According to X account @ChinaSelect, Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong has been imprisoned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 2020 for his pro-democracy activities. U.S. Representative Moolenaar praised his courage and officially nominated Joshua Wong for the Defending Freedoms Project of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Congress, with the relevant committee and its chair issuing statements of support.

Investigative reporter Liu Hu wrote on September 29 that Wang Yufeng, the whistleblower in the case of Huawel Microelectronics' illegal and non-compliant information disclosure, was taken away by Jilin police from Shanghai in November 2022 and has been detained for nearly four years. The case has entered the CSRC's proposed whistleblower reward list; as of September 23, the trial had lasted a cumulative 107 days, and several of Wang Yufeng's sealed companies have become substantively bankrupt.

On September 17, it was circulated online that the Justice Bureau of Puan County, Guizhou Province, issued a notice requiring local lawyers, when handling cases related to cracking down on organized crime, to report to the county justice bureau for study and obtain approval before they can present defense arguments that involve changing the characterization of a crime, and demanding that all law firms strictly enforce this.

In August 2026, prominent criminal defense lawyer Chen Youxi publicly pointed out that in multiple cases involving fallen officials, the case-handling authorities appointed legal aid lawyers to crowd out the lawyers retained by family members, effectively depriving the parties of their right to defense.

Lawyer Hou Zhiyuan, while attending the trial of lawyer Wang Qing for alleged fraud, intervened in a dispute between a family member and the police, and was taken by the police to the detention room's steel cage for 20 minutes, during which he experienced discomfort.

On July 8, 2026, the public interest organization Asia Lawyers Network released a report disclosing that the crackdown on lawyers in China has extended to the civil and commercial sectors, with lawyers frequently facing criminal prosecution by authorities using criminal charges to replace civil litigation when handling civil and commercial disputes.

After the case was accepted, it remained unhandled for a long time; Lin attempted suicide by slashing his or her wrist shortly afterward, and his or her lawyer says Lin was subsequently diagnosed with severe depression by a hospital.

In late June 2026, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress released the draft amendment to the Lawyers Law, with new clauses explicitly requiring practicing lawyers to support the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist rule of law, and mandating that law firms establish grassroots Party organizations in accordance with the Party Constitution.

On June 10, 2026, Chinese independent feminist and human rights activist Li Qiaochu sent an inquiry letter, legally filing an administrative reconsideration against the Shandong Provincial Prison Administration for its inaction on the marriage application of Xu Zhiyong, who is incarcerated.

On May 25, 2026, Wu Qiang, a citizen of Lianyungang, Jiangsu, posted a video accusing the authorities of sentencing him to one year in prison for 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' after he monitored water pollution. Following his release, the Lianyungang Intermediate Court placed him under residential surveillance for another six months. He also disclosed that he was subjected to torture and abuse while in custody.

China's Ministry of Justice announced the results of a crackdown on local law enforcement violations, saying it identified and corrected more than 66,000 problems and recovered economic losses of 30.7 billion yuan for businesses.

According to a report by Caixin, in the very month that Li Hongyuan was detained, 5 employees were arrested for demanding severance pay from Huawei, one of whom was arrested by Thai police while traveling in Thailand and later handed over.

From July 9, 2015, Chinese police (Public Security) carried out large-scale arrests, summons and detentions of over a hundred rights lawyers, rights defenders and their relatives across 23 provinces, an event known as the 709 crackdown.

The film When Night Falls, directed by Shanghai-based director Ying Liang, tells from the perspective of Yang Jia's mother, Wang Jingmei, her experience of being illegally confined in a psychiatric hospital after her son's arrest and her subsequent efforts on his behalf. The film was screened at the Jeonju International Film Festival and the Locarno Film Festival in 2012, where Ying Liang won the Best Director award at Locarno, after which he left Shanghai following threats of arrest.

In May 2011, the Xia Junfeng case entered the Supreme People's Court's death penalty review; afterward, academics and netizens launched a "stay the execution" solidarity campaign, though the exact launch date and the scale of hundreds of thousands of participants could not be verified.

On June 16, 2009, the court of Badong County, Hubei, found Deng Yujiao guilty of intentional injury in the first-instance ruling, but, taking into account such circumstances as excessive self-defense and voluntary surrender, exempted her from criminal penalty.

The night after the Yang Jia case occurred, his mother Wang Jingmei was first taken to the Datun Police Station in Chaoyang District, and was then sent by Shanghai and Beijing police to the Ankang Psychiatric Hospital of the Beijing Public Security Bureau in Shunyi District and forcibly detained. Her family only learned of her whereabouts four months later, and legal professionals pointed out that there was no regulatory basis whatsoever for sending her to a psychiatric hospital.

A male Falun Gong practitioner from Shanghai whom Hu Liren met in Flushing, New York, said that he was sentenced and imprisoned in a Shanghai prison for practicing Falun Gong. While in prison, he was pinned to the ground with a chair pressed against him, and prison guards repeatedly shocked his head with multiple electric batons until he lost consciousness, leaving a large swelling on his head.