Writers at Risk Database

Yang Maodong Guo Feixiong

April 28, 2020

Yang served six years in prison over protests against corruption and censorship in 2013, and was assaulted and denied proper medical care in prison. He was finally released conditionally… More

Cui Haoxin An Ran

April 28, 2020

Cui, a Hui Muslim, uses poetry and online platforms to protest China’s treatment of Muslim minorities. After enduring harassment throughout 2018, Cui was arrested in January 2020. There is… More

Lu Guang

April 28, 2020

In November 2018, Lu was secretly arrested in Xinjiang while meeting with local photographers. Conditionally released nearly a year later, Lu is forced to live in Shanghai under surveillance… More

Writers at Risk Database

Bei Dao

April 28, 2020

Among the most acclaimed poets of his generation, Dao was accused of inciting the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and exiled from China, causing him to move to seven… More

Writers at Risk Database

Gui Minhai

April 28, 2020

A Swedish citizen, Gui was one of five Hong Kong booksellers to disappear in 2015 and resurface in Chinese custody. While the others have been released, Gui spent years… More

Writers at Risk Database

Liu Xia

April 28, 2020

After her husband Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 for calling for political reforms in China, poet Lu Xia was held incommunicado under extralegal house arrest.… More

Writers at Risk Database

Ai Weiwei

April 28, 2020

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… More

Writers at Risk Database

Gao Yu

April 28, 2020

Gao Yu has been imprisoned three times for her dissident reporting, most recently in 2014, when she was sentenced to seven years for revealing state secrets. In November 2015,… More

Zhao Baahuu Soliyoot Shulegchin, or Cao Yuan Nu Huo

April 28, 2020

Zhao was released from detention but remains confined to house arrest as of October 2019 after publishing poems entitled “Dark Night Journey” and “Mongolian Grassland” that criticized China’s treatment… More

Chen Jieren

April 28, 2020

In retribution for his blog posts discussing fraud and corruption committed by a local party official and other government criticism, Chen Jieren was held in criminal detention for retaliatory… More

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