Urgent: Sanmenxia Prison operates year-round, forcing inmates to work 15 hours a day; Xing Wangli: “I can’t go on living!”

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On October 21, 2026, this outlet learned that Sanmenxia Prison had cut inmates’ food rations, forcing thousands of inmates to work 15 hours a day, every day of the year. The inmates are surviving on nothing but “fat.” Imprisoned rights advocate Xing Wangli told his wife, “I can’t go on living.”

On October 20, 2026, Xing Wangli’s wife, Xu Jincui, again went to Sanmenxia Prison to visit him.

According to reports, Xing Wangli had just been transferred from Zhumadian Prison to Sanmenxia Prison. At Sanmenxia Prison, after Xing Wangli scratched himself a few times because his skin was itchy, the prison administration section said he had failed to follow the “rules” and forced him to hold his hands above his head (in a posture resembling surrender) for more than 10 hours a day for five consecutive days. The prison food is extremely poor: thin porridge and steamed buns for breakfast, boiled noodles for lunch, and occasionally stir-fried bean sprouts or tofu boiled in plain water for dinner. There is no meat at all in the prison. Even though Xing Wangli’s right hand is disabled and he previously suffered a severe head injury with a comminuted skull fracture after being beaten, he has received not the slightest humanitarian consideration from prison authorities. He is also forced by the prison to work 15 hours every day, packing clothes for its subsidiary company, Sanmenxia White Swan Garments Co., Ltd., with no days off year-round. Xing Wangli is sallow and gaunt, has lost a great deal of weight, and his hands have been worn raw and made to bleed from packing. He told his wife, Xu Jincui: “I can’t go on living at Sanmenxia Prison.”

When Xing Wangli’s family raised the issue of his forced labor with prison officials, they said: “We only assigned him the task of trimming loose threads; we did not set him a quota.”

Xing Wangli’s son, Xing Jian, is now a New Zealand citizen. Since leaving China, he has not bought clothes, socks, shoes, or other products made in China that may have been produced by Chinese forced laborers.

He said that China is currently New Zealand’s largest trading partner. He will use relevant channels to report to the New Zealand government the suspected forced labor and human rights abuses in Chinese prisons, and he called on New Zealanders to refuse to buy products that may involve forced labor and to take practical action to boycott “slave-made products.”

Profile of Xing Wangli: Born on March 24, 1971, in Xi County, Xinyang, Henan Province; rights advocate.

Since 2002, after his seven-year-old son Xing Jian (then named Xing Lulu) was hit by a vehicle belonging to the Xinyang Cotton and Hemp Company, suffering a ruptured liver and a broken right leg and nearly dying, local authorities handled the case unlawfully and privately divided the compensation payment, prompting the family to begin defending its rights. Since then, Xing Wangli has not only sought justice for his own family but has also gradually helped others defend their rights, accumulating more than 20 years of rights-defense experience. During this long campaign, family members have repeatedly faced official repression and unlawful judicial persecution. Family members have received unlawful prison sentences and served a total of 16 years for their rights-defense activities; Xing Wangli himself was subjected to unlawful reeducation through labor and imprisonment, serving a total of 10 years and 8 months; the family’s combined prison time amounts to 26 years and 8 months (not including time spent in administrative detention, unlawful detention, house arrest, criminal detention, or residential surveillance).

On September 24, 2004, Xing Wangli was sentenced by the Xi County Public Security Bureau to one year of reeducation through labor for seeking medical expenses and compensation for his son.

During the Two Sessions in 2012, Xing Wangli went to the township government (now the Huaihe Subdistrict Office of Xi County) to seek a resolution to the problem of water for agricultural production, but to no avail. As he passed the Chengjiao Township Police Station in Xi County (now the Huaihe Subdistrict Police Station of Xi County), he saw that petitioner Zhou Junling from Xi County had been unlawfully detained there for several days by then-station chief Wang Liang. He took a photograph with the camera he was carrying. On the night of March 7, Wang Liang came to Xing Wangli’s home with two uniformed police officers to demand the photograph, but Xing refused. Wang Liang then gathered more than 20 police officers, surrounded the Xing home, and took Xing away. He subsequently accused Xing Wangli of extorting the Chengjiao Township government (in 2011, forcing it to provide Xing Wangli with 10,000 yuan in assistance). Xing Wangli’s wife, Xu Jincui, worried that her husband would be tortured during interrogation by Wang Liang and others, so she and their son Xing Jian went to the police station to inquire about the situation. They were accused of obstructing official duties and sentenced to two years and six months in prison, and she was held at the Women’s Prison in Zhongmou County, Henan Province. Xing Wangli was ultimately sentenced to two years for “extorting the township government” and, while held at the Xi County Detention Center, suffered inhumane treatment, including hunger strikes and shackling, and endured physical and psychological torment. On two occasions, the Xinyang Intermediate People’s Court overturned the original judgment and remanded the case for retrial, citing unclear facts and insufficient evidence. Ultimately, citing unclear facts and insufficient evidence, the Xi County Procuratorate withdrew the charges and declined to prosecute.

On March 7, 2014, after serving two years in custody, Xing Wangli was released. However, on the day of his release, the Xi County Public Security Bureau orally announced that he would be placed under residential surveillance. It was not until August 6 of that year that the bureau issued a written Decision on Residential Surveillance at a Designated Residence, stating that the measure had been in effect since March 7, 2014.

Xing Wangli was accused of “extorting the township government.” The Xinyang Intermediate People’s Court twice overturned the original judgment and remanded the case for retrial on the grounds of “unclear facts and insufficient evidence.” Ultimately, the Xi County People’s Procuratorate withdrew the prosecution. The facts of the case thus established that Xing Wangli had committed no crime, but he had already spent two years effectively imprisoned in a detention center.

In April 2015, Xi County petitioner Feng Guohui died under mysterious circumstances in a rented room at the Xi County agricultural market while petitioning. The incident was rife with unanswered questions and deeply shook local petitioners. Xing Wangli and local petitioners Yu Jun, Zhou Junling, and others immediately issued public appeals online, calling on higher-level bodies such as the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Public Security to investigate and establish the truth about the death. This angered the local authorities. On May 25 of that year, Xi County police criminally detained Xing Wangli on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” The police accusations against him even included “urinating on the Xi County Court’s nameplate” and protesting in public against what he called “unfair judgments” against his daughter Xing Mei, his mother Xing Jiaying, and his mother-in-law He Zeying—charges with an evidently retaliatory character. On June 4, Xing Wangli was formally arrested and held at the Xi County Detention Center in Xinyang. On August 26, 2016, his case went to trial at the Xi County Court in Xinyang, Henan Province. At first instance, he was sentenced to four years and six months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He immediately appealed, but the next day he nearly died. Prison authorities did not notify his family until 10 hours after the incident, saying that he had attempted to hang himself with a paper rope from a cell window and had landed headfirst when cellmates rescued him, causing “a cerebral contusion and laceration in the right frontotemporal lobe, an occipital bone fracture, a left parietal epidural hematoma, contusions to the lower lobes of both lungs, bilateral pleural effusion, and cerebral edema.” His family was not allowed to visit because he remained in critical condition. It is reported that during his detention, he was repeatedly subjected to torture and abuse in prison. The Xinyang Intermediate People’s Court later issued a one-page ruling at second instance, upholding the original sentence of four years and six months’ imprisonment (because the prosecution of Xing Wangli for “extorting the township government” had been withdrawn, and he had already spent two years in actual custody, the authorities decided to credit those two years, leaving two years and six months to serve). He had previously served time at Henan No. 4 Prison (Luoyang Prison).

After his release on November 24, 2017, the couple sought to defend their rights over compensation for their son’s traffic accident, which they said had been embezzled by Li Xuechao, then secretary of the Chengjiao Township Party Committee in Xi County; Lu Xinping, deputy head of the Public Security Bureau; and Qiu Jihong of the traffic police brigade. They were imprisoned several times and subjected to severe official persecution. Both spouses were plagued by illness, and, with no other option, went to Beijing in late February 2018 to seek medical care. But as soon as they got off the train at Beijing Railway Station, local government petition interception personnel abducted them, sent them back, and detained them. The Xi County Court in Xinyang, Henan Province, then wrongfully sentenced Xing Wangli to two years and three months’ imprisonment for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” using “3,000 yuan in hardship assistance” as the basis for the conviction. He appealed the sentence, but the Xinyang Intermediate People’s Court upheld it at second instance, and he was sent to Xinyang Prison in Henan Province to serve his sentence. He was released on May 26, 2020.

On April 20, 2021, the couple went to Lingshan Town, Luoshan County, Henan Province, to visit human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who had been under house arrest by the authorities for more than two years. They then went to mail a letter at a post office in Dongcheng District, Beijing, on April 27. Officers from Beijing’s Qianmen Police Station questioned and detained them. Police from their home county, Xi County, subsequently placed them in administrative detention for 15 days. On May 12 of that year, Xi County police changed Xing Wangli’s status to criminal detention on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On June 18 of that year, the Xi County Procuratorate changed the charge and formally approved his arrest on suspicion of “defamation,” alleging that his “Letter of Appeal to People from All Walks of Life and Online Users” contained false information, defamed several public officials, and had a “negative impact on society,” and that his words and actions violated relevant government laws, warranting his arrest. On April 21, 2022, the Xi County Court in Xinyang, Henan Province, sentenced him at first instance to two years and 11 months’ imprisonment for “defamation,” with his term ending on April 11, 2024. He appealed, but a one-page second-instance ruling upheld the original judgment. His sentence was due to end on April 11, 2024. He had previously served time at Xinyang Prison in Henan Province.

On the morning of February 18, 2025, as Xi County petitioner Yu Jun and several local petitioners were preparing to leave Xing Wangli’s home, elderly Yu Jun was violently intercepted by local government personnel in front of the Xing home and roughly shoved to the ground. Xing Wangli was there at the time. He recorded the entire incident on his phone and then called the Xi County Public Security Bureau to report it.

However, after making a report to police in accordance with the law, Xing Wangli himself was criminally detained that same day by the public order brigade of the Xi County Public Security Bureau on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He was subsequently formally arrested and the case was transferred for prosecution. On April 27, 2025, his lawyer was allowed to meet with him for the first time. At 9 a.m. on May 13, 2025, the case first went to trial at the Xi County Court. The defense played a recording of a call said to be between Xing Wangli’s wife, Xu Jincui, and the alleged victim, Hong Jie, Party branch secretary of Hongzhuang Community under the Huaihe Subdistrict Office of Xi County. Hong Jie swore that he had not reported the matter to the police and said, “It was something Chen Wanyi from the police cooked up.” A recording of a call with another alleged victim, Guan Min, also showed that he denied having filed a report. Since the case had no victim, no police report, and no case filing, after deliberation the court changed the hearing to a “pretrial conference.”

On May 26, 2025, Cui Shulin, a prosecutor with the Xi County Procuratorate and the prosecutor in the case, instructed Pan Haojie, an officer at the Huaihe Police Station of the Xi County Public Security Bureau, to conduct a supplementary interview with Hong Jie. During the questioning, coercive tactics included leading questions and suggestions, forcing him to make statements inconsistent with the facts.

At 3:30 p.m. on July 18, 2025, the case against Xing Wangli on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” went to trial again at the Xi County Court. The case had neither victims nor witnesses, but prosecutor Cui Shulin insisted on prosecuting. To make room for hearings in other cases, the court forced this case to be heard earlier than scheduled. Despite insufficient evidence, no police report, no case filing, allegedly unlawful evidence collection, and the absence of the supposed witnesses and victims, prosecutor Cui Shulin still insisted on recommending a sentence of four years and six months to five years.

It was learned in late August 2025 that presiding judge Xu Weicheng of the Xi County Court had sentenced Xing Wangli to three years’ imprisonment for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.”

On December 3, 2025, Zhumadian Prison in Henan Province (also known as Yunan Prison) called Xing Wangli’s wife, Xu Jincui, to inform her that Xing Wangli had been transferred there to serve his sentence.

On August 20, 2026, Xing Wangli was secretly transferred from Zhumadian Prison to Sanmenxia Prison to serve his sentence. His sentence ends on February 17, 2028.

This outlet will continue to follow Xing Wangli’s conditions in prison.

Related links:

Henan Province, Xi County rights advocate Xing Wangli was blindfolded and secretly transferred to Sanmenxia Prison for forced laborhttps://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2026/09/blog-post_777.html

Henan human rights defender Xing Wangli, sentenced to three years, transferred to Zhumadian Prison in Henan Province (also known as Yunan Prison) to serve his sentencehttps://wqw2010.blogspot.com/2025/12/3_47.html