Writers at Risk Database

Alex Chow

Pro-democracy youth activist Chow was imprisoned in August 2017 on charges of unlawful assembly for his role in the Occupy Central protests in 2014. He was released on bail… More

Zhu Yufu

Zhu Yufu

Dissident poet Zhu served seven years in prison in connection with his poetry and was released in early 2018. Five months later, Zhu was briefly detained in September 2018… More

Wang Yi

In January 2020, preacher and poet Wang was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting subversion of state power after being held incommunicado with his wife since March… More

Xu Zhangrun

While under house arrest for penning an essay in February 2020 regarding China’s repressive response to COVID-19, Xu was detained on July 6 on spurious charges but released six… More

Writers at Risk Database

Tashi Wangchuk

Tashi has publicly advocated for Tibetan language rights, drawing persecution from the state. In 2016, he was secretly detained and held incommunicado for two months. Sentenced to five years… More

Writers at Risk Database

Huang Zerong Tie Liu

Veteran writer Tie has been targeted by the Chinese government for decades. For his criticism of former Chairman Mao Zedong online and for undisclosed reasons, Tie has been in… More

Xue Deyun Ma Zhe

A leader of the Guizhou cultural revival movement, which called for increased literary freedom in China, Xue was jailed from 1987-90 and again from 1998-2001 for attempting to overthrow… More

Writers at Risk Database

Zhang Jianhong Li Hong

Leading dissident writer Zhang spent two years in a labor camp in the late '90s. He was imprisoned again in September 2006 and was denied medical treatment until his… More

Liu Jingshen

A key figure in the Democracy Wall movement, Liu was arrested as one of the Beijing Fifteen dissidents in 1992 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for counter-revolutionary… More

Writers at Risk Database

Huang Jinqiu Qing Shuijun

Following his rise as a pro-democracy essayist and blogger in the early 2000s, Huang was arrested in 2003 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for writing 'reactionary' articles… More