China

China

What You Need to Know

More than 100 writers are currently behind bars on politicized charges in China. The majority were jailed for online expression that was critical of official policies or expressed pro-democracy viewpoints.

China’s leader Xi Jinping has overseen an extensive crackdown on free expression that has included attempted cultural and linguistic destruction targeting Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Mongolians and other ethnic minorities elevating to potential crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, and the crushing of civil and political rights in Hong Kong.

As China’s economic and political strength has increased, the Chinese Communist Party has also expanded its censorship apparatus overseas to try and limit expression about China beyond its borders, engage in transnational repression against exiles and the diaspora, and erode international human rights norms.

Individual Cases

  • Award-winning academic, researcher, and professor at Minzu and Xinjiang Universities, Habibullah is serving a 15-year sentence for unknown charges. His arrest and imprisonment are suspected to be tied to the Chinese crusade on Uyghur intellectuals, as his area of expertise…


  • Ai has been beaten, detained, and harassed by the government for over 10 years. Previously subject to a travel ban, Ai left China in 2015 to focus his activism on Europe’s refugee crisis; though the Chinese state continues to pressure…


  • Xiang is a blogger who created a WeChat group where has been posting politically sensitive commentary and expressing concerns about citizens’ rights since 2017. In 2019, he was stopped at the airport, prevented from leaving the country, and his passport…


  • Chen, a pro-democracy activist and writer, was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison in 2016 after being found guilty of “inciting to subvert state power.” Since the start of his imprisonment, he has lost four teeth and…


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Experts