 | This article needs to be updated.(February 2016) |
This list consists of activists who are known as Chinese dissidents. The label is primarily applied to intellectuals and other high-profile individuals from China who are known for their criticism of the Chinese government or its policies.
Many Chinese political activists have been detained or jailed or exiled for their pro-democracy or rights defending activities. They include the following notable activists.
| Name | Occupation | Detained | Allegations | Sentence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ai Weiwei | artist and activist | 2011 | alleged economic crimes | Fine of 2.4 million for tax evasion | Detained for 80 days from 3 April [1] to 22 June 2011 |
| Bao Tong | government official | 1989 | revealing state secrets and counter-revolutionary propagandizing | 7 years | Sentenced in 1992. Prison from 1989–1996. As of 2009, under surveillance. |
| Bao Zunxin | historian | 1989 | counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement | 5 years | Sentenced in 1991. Released in 1992. Later died in 2007. |
| Cai Lujun | businessman, writer | 2003 | incitement to subversion | 3 years | Released in 2006, sought political asylum in Taiwan in 2007. |
| Cao Shunli | lawyer, human rights activist | 2013 | illegal assembly, picking quarrels and provoking trouble | Died in detention in 2014. | |
| Chen Pokong | author, commentator, democracy activist | 1989 1993 | "carrying out counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement", illegally crossing state borders | 3 years, 2 years | Sentenced in 1989 and 1993. [2] |
| Cheng Jianping | online activist | 2010 | disturbing social order | 1 year | Reeducation through labor for a sarcastic post on Twitter. [3] |
| Gao Zhisheng | lawyer | 2006 | disturbing public order | 5 yrs suspended | Illegally detained and tortured in 2007; forcibly removed from family home in Shaanxi in 2009. [4] 'Disappeared' by government in 2009, reappeared in 2010. The Chinese foreign minister claimed a prison sentence was for 'subversion'. [5] [6] |
| Guo Quan | professor | 2008 | subversion of state power | 10 years | Sentenced in 2009. Awaiting appeal. |
| Hao Jinsong | law professional, activist | 2019 | picking quarrels and provoking trouble, fraud | 9 years and a fine of 350,000 yuan | Sentenced in 2023. [7] |
| He Depu | writer | 2002 | "incited subversion" on the Internet [8] | 8 years | Sentenced in 2003. Released in 2011. |
| Hu Jia | activist | 2007 | inciting subversion of state power | 3.5 years | Arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced in 2008. Released in 2011. |
| Huang Qi | webmaster, anti-human trafficking activist | 2000 | inciting subversion | 5 years | Sentenced in 2003. Accused of violating articles 103, 105, 55 and 56. Released in 2005. |
| 2008 | illegal possession of state secrets | 3 years | Sentenced in 2009. Arrested after essay regarding the Sichuan earthquake. Released in 2011. | ||
| Ilham Tohti | economist | 2014 | inciting subversion | life | Detained in January 2014 after criticizing Beijing's response to 2013 Tiananmen Square attack. |
| Jiang Lijun | writer | 2002 | inciting subversion of the state power | 4 years | Sentenced in 2003. Arrested for "Internet writing and publishing dissident articles". Also sentenced to 'deprivation of political rights' for 1 year. |
| Jiang Rong | writer | 1989 | Released 1991. | ||
| Jiang Yanyong | doctor | 2004 | Detained and released in 2004. Broke story on SARS epidemic. Wrote critical letter regarding Tiananmen. | ||
| Jiang Yefei | political cartoonist | 2015 | incitement to subversion | Escaped from China to Thailand in 2004, he was granted political asylum by the Canadian Government, but was arrested by Thailand Immigration authorities on illegal entry. In November 2015 he was deported from Thailand at the request of the Chinese authorities and now awaiting trial in custody. [9] | |
| Lei Chen | civil servant, journalist | 1960 | incitement to subversion | 10 years | Member of the Control Yuan and expelled from the Kuomintang in 1954. Released in 1970 by the Kuomintang government and died on 7 March 1979. Posthumously exonerated by the Transitional Justice Commission in 2019. |
| Li Hai | student | 1994 | 9 years | Sentenced in 1995. Released in 2004. | |
| Li Zhi | civil servant | 2003 | inciting subversion | 8 years | Sentenced in 2003. Yahoo! helped the government against him. Expected release in 2011. |
| Liao Yiwu | writer, musician | 1990 | poem "Massacre" about Tiananmen Square | 4 years, permanent blacklist from travel | Under a 2011 'travel ban' for 'national security' reasons. |
| Liu Di | student | 2002 | Released in 2003 | ||
| Liu Xiaobo | professor of literature | 2008 | inciting subversion of state power | 11 years | Sentenced in 2009. Died on 13 July 2017. Recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. |
| Qin Yongmin | human rights activist | 1998 2018 | inciting subversion of state power | 12 years 13 years | Sentenced 1998 and July 2018. Co-founder of the Democracy Party of China. [10] |
| Qiu Zhanxuan | student activist | 2019 | unknown, likely because he was the leader of the Marxist student association at Peking University | unknown | Qiu was abducted on 29 April 2019 by State security agents on the outskirts of Beijing. He was the leader of the Marxist student association at the elite Peking University, a communist of conscience who defied the Chinese Communist Party. He remains missing. |
| Ren Zhiqiang | tycoon, blogger | 2020 | purported corruption | 18 years | Sentenced in 2020. [11] |
| Ruan Xiaohuan | blogger, InfoSec specialist | 2021 | inciting subversion of state power | 7 years | Sentenced in 2023. [12] |
| Shi Tao | journalist, writer, poet | 2004 | illegally supplying state secrets to overseas organizations | 10 years | Sentenced in 2005. Yahoo! helped the government against him. Released 2013. [13] [14] |
| Tan Zuoren | writer | 2008 | 3 years | Sentenced in 2009. | |
| 2010 | subversion of state power | 5 years | Sentenced in 2010. | ||
| Tang Baiqiao | activist | 1989 | spreading counterrevolutionary propaganda; inciting counterrevolutionary activities; defection to the enemy; treason. | 3 years | Released under international pressure in 1991. Fled to Hong Kong, then United States in 1992. |
| Wang Bingzhang | doctor | 2002 | spying, terrorism | life | Sentenced in 2003. |
| Wang Dan | professor of history | 1989 | Tiananmen activities | 4 years | Sentenced in 1991. Released on parole in 1993. |
| 1995 | 11 years | Sentenced in 1996. Released on medical parole to United States in 1998 and currently in Taiwan. | |||
| Wang Quanzhang | lawyer | 2015 | subversion of state power | 4½ years | Put on trial in December 2018, sentenced in January 2019. [15] |
| Wang Xiaoning | engineer | 2002 | incitement to subvert state power | 10 years | Sentenced in 2003. Yahoo! helped the government against him. Expected release in 2012 [16] |
| Wang Youcai | 1989 | [ citation needed ] | |||
| 1998 | subversion | 11 years | Released and exiled in 2004. Currently in the United States. | ||
| Wei Jingsheng | electrician | 1979 | passing military secrets | 15 years | Released and jailed again in 1993 and released for "medical reasons" and deported to the United States in 1997. |
| Wu Gan | blogger | 2015 | subversion of state power | 8 years | |
| Xu Zhiyong | lawyer, lecturer | 2014 | gathering crowds to disrupt public order | 4 years | For his role of founding New Citizens' Movement and in protests. |
| Xu Zhangrun | constitutional lawyer and lecturer | 2020 | using prostitutes | one week | |
| Yang Jianli | activist, scholar | 2002 | alleged espionage & illegal entry | 5 years | The Chinese government placed Yang on a 1994 blacklist of 49 pro-democracy activists barred from returning to China. Yang used another person's passport to enter China in 2002. [17] |
| Yu Wensheng | lawyer | 2020 | inciting subversion of state power | 4 years | According to Yu's wife Xu Yan, he was also deprived of his citizens' rights for three years. [18] |
| Yuan Hongbing | jurist, writer | 1994 | Detained and forced to leave China in 1994. Travelled to and sought political asylum in Australia in 2004. | ||
| Yue Xin | student activist | 2018 | unknown, likely in response to protests organized by Yue | unknown | Yue went missing in October 2018, after she and fifty other students were detained by Chinese authorities after participating in Jasic Incident. She remains missing. |
| Zeng Jinyan | blogger | 2006 | suspected of harming state security | Under house arrest with husband Hu Jia from August 2006 – March 2007 and under house arrest again from May 2007; [19] released later | |
| Zhao Changqing | teacher of history | 1989 | Tiananmen activities | Released after about 1/2 year. | |
| 1998 | workers rights activity | 3 years | |||
| 2002 | attempted subversion of state power | 5 years | Sentenced in 2003. [20] | ||
| Zhao Lianhai | food safety worker, activist | 2009 | inciting social disorder | 2.5 years | Sentenced in 2010. [21] [22] |
Shi Tao is a Chinese journalist, writer and poet, who in 2005 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for releasing a document of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to an overseas Chinese democracy site. Yahoo! China was later discovered to have facilitated his arrest by providing his personal details to the Chinese government. Yahoo! was subsequently rebuked by a panel of the U.S. Congress, settled a lawsuit by Shi's family out of court, and pledged to reform its practices.
Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities and documenting human rights abuses in China. Because of his work, Zhisheng has been disbarred and detained by the Chinese government several times, and severely tortured. He last disappeared in February 2009 and was unofficially detained until December 2011, when it was announced that he has now been imprisoned for three years. His commitment to defending his clients is influenced by his Christian beliefs and their tenets on morality and compassion.
Li Boguang was a Chinese legal scholar and human rights activist. Li was born in a mountain village in Jiahe County, Hunan province. He was the youngest son among seven children in poor family. When his father died Li was only 7 years old.
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Liu Xiaobo was a Chinese literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end communist one-party rule in China. He was arrested numerous times, and was described as China's most prominent dissident and the country's most famous political prisoner. On 26 June 2017, he was granted medical parole after being diagnosed with liver cancer; he died a few weeks later on 13 July 2017.
Xu Zhiyong is a Chinese civil rights activist and formerly a lecturer at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. He was one of the founders of the NGO Open Constitution Initiative and an active rights lawyer in China who campaigned against corruption and helped those underprivileged. He is the main founder and icon of the New Citizens' Movement in China. In January 2014 he was sentenced to four years in prison for "gathering crowds to disrupt public order". He was detained again on February 15, 2020, in the southern city of Guangzhou after two months in hiding, for his participation in a meeting of rights activists and lawyers in Xiamen in December 2019 in which "democratic transition in China" was discussed. He was sentenced for subversion to 14 years in jail on April 10, 2023.
Three Kingdoms is a 2010 Chinese television series based on the events in the late Eastern Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period. The plot is adapted from the 14th century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other stories about the Three Kingdoms period. Directed by Gao Xixi, the series had a budget of over 160 million RMB and took five years of pre-production work. Shooting of the series commenced in October 2008, and it was released in China in May 2010.
Charter 08 is a manifesto initially signed by 303 Chinese dissident intellectuals and human rights activists. It was published on 10 December 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopting its name and style from the anti-Soviet Charter 77 issued by dissidents in Czechoslovakia. Since its release, more than 10,000 people inside and outside China have signed the charter. After unsuccessful reform efforts in 1989 and 1998 by the Chinese democracy movement, Charter 08 was the first challenge to one-party rule that declared the end of one-party rule to be its goal; it has been described as the first one with a unified strategy.
The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism. The movement, which began in the early 2000s, has organized demonstrations, sought reform via the legal system and media, defended victims of human rights abuses, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Among the issues adopted by Weiquan lawyers are property and housing rights, protection for AIDS victims, environmental damage, religious freedom, freedom of speech and the press, and defending the rights of other lawyers facing disbarment or imprisonment.
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Li Heping is a civil rights lawyer in the People's Republic of China and a partner of the Beijing Global Law Firm who was abducted on 10 July 2015. He is a prominent figure in China's Weiquan movement, having defended underground Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, dissident writers, and victims of forced evictions, among others.
We Have A Dream: Global Summit Against Discrimination and Persecution was an international summit organized by the Geneva-based non-governmental organization UN Watch, and attended by an international collection of non-governmental organizations to discuss issues of discrimination and persecution, particularly those of racism, sexism, homophobia, and discrimination against minorities. It occurred over two days, September 21 and 22 of 2011, across the street from a United Nations conference referred to as Durban III.
The China men's national volleyball team represents China in international volleyball competitions and friendly matches, governed by Chinese Volleyball Association. The team competed twice in the Olympic Games, finishing in eighth place at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, and fifth place in the 2008 Summer Olympics at home in Beijing. China have been consistently competing the FIVB World Championship, with a best of seventh place in both 1978 and 1982. On a continental level, China won three gold medals at the Asian Games, in 1986, 1990 and 1998. China also won 3 gold medals at the Asian Championship in 1979, 1997 and 1999. The team now ranks 26th in the FIVB World Rankings and the current head coach is Wu Sheng.
CHINA AID ASSOCIATION, INC., also known as ChinaAid.org is a registered entity in Midland, Texas. It was described as focusing on raising awareness of human rights abuses, providing support and legal aid to Chinese prisoners of conscience and their families, and promoting the rule of law and religious freedom throughout China.
God of War, Zhao Yun, also known as Chinese Hero Zhao Zilong, released under the title Dynasty Warriors in Indonesia, is a 2016 Chinese television series directed by Cheng Lidong and produced by Zhejiang Yongle Entertainment Co., Ltd. The series starred cast members from mainland China, South Korea and Taiwan: Lin Gengxin, Im Yoon-ah and Kim Jeong-hoon. The story is loosely adapted from the 14th-century Chinese classical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with Zhao Yun as the main character. It was first aired on Hunan TV from 3 April to 7 May 2016.
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The 709 Crackdown was a nationwide crackdown on Chinese lawyers and human rights activists instigated during the summer of 2015. It is known as the "709 crackdown" as it started on 9 July 2015.
Li Qiaochu is a Chinese labor and women's rights activist and researcher on labour issues. She was detained by authorities for four months in the first half of 2020 and again in February 2021, in both cases on national security charges. These were due to her connection with activists, including her partner Xu Zhiyong, who had secretly met in the southeastern city of Xiamen in December 2019 to discuss "democratic transition in China". In February 2024, Li was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for "inciting subversion of state power".
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