Judicial Trial · 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 New Taipei District Prosecutors Office has indicted Taiwanese accomplices involved in the operation against Huang Yihao, with sentences ranging from 2 years and 7 months to more than 5 years and 6 months.

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 videos and remarks posted by X user @clashreport, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, when talking about Britain, publicly criticized that today's Britain is called "Islamized Britain," that 3,000 Britons have been brought to court for posting tweets and other remarks online, and that a considerable number of them have been imprisoned as a result.

According to a report by Red Star News on October 15, in the case of the elderly man's death in Xiangcheng, the family denies any intent to kill, the defense questions the causal link between the obstruction of rescue and the death, multiple relatives have filed appeals, and the case is still under second-instance trial.

Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court overturned the death sentence handed down to 27-year-old Sri Lankan migrant worker Anojan Sivadasa. Sivadasa was convicted of blasphemy in September over comments on Facebook insulting the Prophet Muhammad. He deleted the comments and apologized, but was still arrested.

The Intermediate People's Court of Shangqiu City, Henan Province, sentenced Zhou Xianwang of Hubei to 14 years in prison for accepting bribes, finding that the total amount of bribes accepted amounted to more than 60.5 million yuan.

The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court announced the first-instance verdict in the corruption and bribery case of Zhao Lei, former general manager of the Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group, sentencing him to life imprisonment, depriving him of political rights for life, and confiscating all his personal property.

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.

On September 15, the Jinan Intermediate People's Court in Shandong Province delivered a first-instance verdict, sentencing Bi Jingquan to 14 years in prison and a fine of 5 million yuan for accepting bribes totaling over 57.42 million yuan between 1995 and 2025 by abusing his official positions. Bi Jingquan previously served as Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council and Director of the State Food and Drug Administration.

On September 11, the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong delivered its verdict in the case of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the Alliance) inciting subversion of state power: former vice-chair Chow Hang-tung was sentenced to 7 years and 3 months in prison, former chair Lee Cheuk-yan was sentenced to 7 years, and former vice-chair Albert Ho was sentenced to 5 years and 2 months. The disbanded Alliance was fined 1.5 million HKD (approximately 190,000 USD).

The influencer "Tietou" (Dong Guangming) was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Binjiang Court in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, for organizing a team to expose social darkness, including scams involving elderly health products and shortchanging at seafood markets. His team members were also sentenced. The official reason given was "extortion," but the video argues this is a fabricated charge aimed at suppressing those who reveal the truth.

According to a submission received by the X account "Po Mu Tui Qiang" (Breaking the Wall), during a trial at the Shenzhen Luohu Court over a transfer dispute involving an extramarital affair, the defendant explained the transfers received as a response to the call of the Party and General Secretary Xi, saying that getting rich is inseparable from the Party's wise leadership, sparking discussion among spectators.

On August 24, 2026, the Dandong Intermediate People's Court in Liaoning Province held a public first-instance sentencing in the bribery case of Ren Yuzhong, former standing committee member and vice president of Peking University, finding him guilty of taking more than 31.95 million yuan in bribes and sentencing him to eight years in prison plus a fine of 2.6 million yuan.

Chinese citizen Lu Jianfei was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina for participating in a transnational drug trafficking and money laundering organization.

In a first-instance ruling, the Qindu District Court found that Zhang Heng's act of resisting a forced demolition that resulted in a death constituted self-defense, acquitted him, and rejected the civil compensation claims filed by the deceased's family.

On August 7, 2026, a lawyer disclosed that the Qindu District Court in Xianyang, Shaanxi, had issued a first-instance judgment in the case of Zhang Heng, finding that when his residence was illegally and forcibly demolished by a group of armed people in April 2023, his counterattack that resulted in one death constituted legitimate self-defense, and declaring him not guilty.

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.

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.

CCTV reported on a live-streaming scam conducted under the guise of rescuing stray cats and dogs. The criminal gang defrauded over 1,500 kind-hearted individuals of more than 2.5 million yuan through false information and intentional animal abuse. The mastermind, surnamed Li, was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison for fraud and fined 200,000 yuan.

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.

Zhu Zisong, former member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and former party chief of the Pudong New Area, was tried in another jurisdiction in Nanchang. He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in the first instance, convicted of accepting bribes totaling 139 million yuan, with his criminal origins traced back to his tenure at the Eighth Academy of Aerospace in 2003.

In a joint operation, the Hong Kong police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) charged 7 individuals, including representatives from two contractors, Hung Ngai and Wang Yip, with a total of 25 counts in connection with the Wang Fuk Court fire case in Tai Po. The suspects were charged in court with manslaughter, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, and other offenses, and were remanded in custody.

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.

In mid-April 2026, the former chairman of China's Aviation Industry Corporation was sentenced to death for corruption and malfeasance. The group is the main producer of most of China's combat aircraft.

On March 30, 2026, a court in Xiangcheng, Henan, found in first instance that Cao's family members had discussed having the elderly person drink pesticide and die on the neighbor's homestead, using the death to force the neighbor to stop work and secure the release of her son Li, who had been criminally detained; six relatives, including her husband and daughter, were convicted of intentional homicide, with the husband sentenced to 6 years.

Between 2020 and 2024, a transnational criminal gang composed primarily of highly educated Chinese men residing in Germany and the Netherlands, established a secret group called 'German Old Driver's School' on the encrypted social platform Telegram own. They used female identities on social software such as WeChat and Xiaohongshu to post fake rental or help-seeking information to lure newly arrived Chinese female students and young women to private residences, secretly administering date rape drugs (such as GHB/GBL, sedatives, etc.) to commit sexual assault, and used slang like 'car', 'refueling', and 'dead pig' within the group to brag and communicate, recording and disseminating sexual violence imagery. In February 2026, the Frankfurt District Court issued a first-instance judgment against the main perpetrator Zhang Dapeng (who was an IT supervisor of a car company before the case), finding him guilty of 22 charges including attempted murder and especially severe rape, sentencing him to 14 years of imprisonment and additional preventive detention (security supervision). Other accomplices Jiang Zhongyi was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in Munich, Zhou Tong was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in Berlin, and Shao Zhiting, who provided drug formula guidance, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in July. This case, due to its heinous criminal methods and targeting of specific groups, caused a shock to the overseas Chinese community and directly pushed the German Federal Cabinet to pass a bill increasing the penalties for date rape crimes.

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.

The Huizhou Intermediate People's Court handed down a first-instance verdict to Zhao Bing and more than ten defendants; principal offender Zhao Bing was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for intentional injury, and the remaining defendants received various sentences.

On November 4, according to CCTV, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province announced the first-instance verdict in the Bai family criminal gang case: Bai Suocheng, Bai Yingcang, Yang Liqiang, Hu Xiaojiang, and Chen Guangyi were sentenced to death; Li Fushou and Li Zhide received death sentences with a reprieve; Guo Jianzheng, Pan Xian, and three others received life imprisonment; Li Longhua, Luo Wending, and six others received fixed-term sentences ranging from three to twenty years.

The Intermediate People's Court of Xianning City, Hubei Province, announced the first-instance verdict in the case of Li Tie. Li Tie was convicted of crimes including accepting bribes and sentenced to 20 years in prison. His status as a non-state personnel has sparked external discussions about the football association system.

A 93-year-old man in Shaoyang, Hunan was sentenced to 15 years in October 2024, but the detention center refused to take him into custody on the grounds that he cannot care for himself.

Former CCP Central Committee Inspection Team Deputy Leader Dong Hong sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve.

A Tianjin court delivered the first-instance verdict for the nine prosecutors involved in the Yanbian case. Xu Xuezhe, the head of the special investigation team, and others were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment for intentional injury or extracting confessions by torture.

The Haikou Intermediate Court issued an enforcement ruling, transferring the ownership of the real estate and vehicles under Shanhaiguan Company to the buyer, Guanyang Sitong Company, in accordance with the Civil Procedure Law, and handled the transfer of registration.

On November 24, 2015, the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court sentenced Jia Jinglong to death for intentional homicide in a first-instance ruling and deprived him of political rights for life; Jia Jinglong subsequently appealed.

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.

After hiding in Canada for twelve years, Lai Changxing was deported back to China in 2011 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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 May 9, 2011, the Liaoning Provincial High People's Court concluded the second-instance trial, upholding the first-instance judgment of the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court and sentencing Xia Junfeng to death; his defense lawyer argued that Xia Junfeng had acted in self-defense, which was not accepted.

On November 11, 2009, the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court sentenced Xia Junfeng to death for intentional homicide in a first-instance ruling; his defense lawyer said the court refused to accept testimony from six eyewitnesses and instead relied on the testimony of chengguan officers.

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.

Zhou Jiugong, head of the Jiangning District Housing Bureau in Nanjing, was brought down and in 2009 was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

On the morning of November 26, 2008, Yang Jia was executed by lethal injection in Shanghai at the age of 28. This was only five days after the Supreme People's Court issued its approval ruling, and less than a day after his mother received the ruling.

On the morning of September 1, 2008, the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court announced its verdict, sentencing Yang Jie to death for intentional homicide and deprivation of political rights for life. Yang Jie and his defense lawyer did not speak throughout the announcement, nor did they indicate whether they would appeal. Online questions about the closed trial, the qualifications of the appraiser, and the identity of the defense lawyer immediately spread.

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.

Li Jiating was investigated in 2001, and two years later was finally sentenced to death with a reprieve for accepting bribes of more than 18.1 million yuan; his son Li Bo and his mistress Xu Fuying were also successively sentenced.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled at first instance that China International Television Corporation had committed infringement, and ordered it to stop distribution, issue a public apology, and pay Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao more than 330,000 yuan in compensation.

Zhou Beifang, suspected of illegally mobilizing massive funds from Shougang to help Deng Zhifang pay off gambling debts, was sentenced by the court to death with a reprieve, while Deng Zhifang escaped legal prosecution and safely retreated behind the scenes.

In June 1989, the Shanghai High People's Court rejected the appeals of Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong, upholding the death sentences; the three were executed on June 21. The specific date of the second instance was reported to be around June 20.

On June 15, 1989, Xu Guoming, Bian Hanwu, and Yan Xuerong were sentenced to death in the first instance by the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court for June Fourth, and were executed by firing squad on June 20, faster than in Beijing.