The famous human rights defender Huang Qi, sentenced to 12 years, spends his 63rd birthday in prison

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On April 7, 2026, this website learned: Today, Mr. Huang Qi, the famous human rights defender sentenced to 12 years, spent his 63rd birthday in prison.

Huang Qi has been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for engaging in human rights work and has been sentenced three times. In 2003, he was sentenced to five years for defending the rights of disadvantaged groups and calling for the protection of human rights; in 2009, he was sentenced to three years for exposing shoddy construction projects that caused the deaths of students. He was arrested again on November 28, 2016, and sentenced to 12 years in 2019, bringing his cumulative prison term to 20 years. He has spent eight years in prison, while his mother, Pu Wenqing, is now in her 90s and her health continues to deteriorate. The visitation rights of the mother and son have not been guaranteed in any way. His mother remains under 24-hour surveillance. Huang Qi suffers from multiple serious illnesses, including renal failure, coronary heart disease and hydrocephalus. The Rights Defense Network has repeatedly urged the Chinese government, on humanitarian grounds, to allow Huang Qi to receive medical parole.

Huang Qi’s biography: Born on April 7, 1963, he is from Neijiang, Sichuan Province; founder of the “64 Tianwang” website, director of the China Tianwang Human Rights Affairs Center, human rights defender, and Chinese prisoner of conscience.

Because he had long focused on socially prominent issues, he established the “Tianwang Missing Persons Office” in 1998 and the “64 Tianwang” website in 1999, and was accustomed to publishing politically sensitive articles online. As a result, he was repeatedly subjected to strict control, summonses, criminal detention and sentencing by the authorities. He was convicted for his speech, arrested by police three times in total, and sentenced on the first two occasions;

On June 5, 2000, he was criminally detained by police in Chengdu, Sichuan, because overseas dissidents had published articles on his website concerning the 1989 Tiananmen incident. He was formally arrested on July 12, and on February 22, 2003, the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court of Sichuan Province sentenced him to five years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and deprived him of political rights for one year. In prison, he was repeatedly beaten by judicial police, prison guards and other inmates, resulting in serious illnesses including hydrocephalus, cerebral atrophy, bilateral ventricular enlargement and narrowing of the cerebral aqueduct;

After his release, on December 31, 2006, he reorganized 64 Tianwang as the China Tianwang Human Rights Affairs Center, founding the first comprehensive human rights organization in mainland China. On June 3 of the same year, he received the Sixth China Human Rights Youth Award. On June 10, 2008, he was criminally detained for a second time by Chengdu police for publishing a report questioning the government about the Sichuan earthquake disaster (that is, publishing an article online exposing “tofu-dreg” construction in the Wenchuan earthquake). He was formally arrested on July 18, and on November 23, 2009, the Wuhou District Court of Chengdu sentenced him to three years in prison for “illegal possession of state secrets.” He was released after completing his sentence on June 9, 2011; however, by then, as a result of prolonged suffering and inhumane treatment in prison, he had developed a terminal kidney disease;

On November 28, 2016, after exposing the contents of an internal document, he was criminally detained for a third time after being taken from his home in Chengdu by police from Mianyang, Sichuan Province. He has been out of contact ever since. On December 16 of the same year, he was formally arrested for “illegally divulging state secrets to foreign countries” and detained at the Mianyang Detention Center. In early March 2018, his case was transferred to the Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court of Sichuan for trial;

On July 29, 2019, the Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court of Sichuan Province sentenced him at first instance to 12 years in prison for “intentional disclosure of state secrets” and “illegally providing state secrets to foreign countries.” He appealed against the verdict, but the Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court subsequently upheld the original judgment on appeal, with his sentence running until November 27, 2028. He is currently serving his sentence at Bazhong Prison in Sichuan. It is reported that Huang Qi was abused and persecuted in prison, was often beaten by inmates and suffered leg injuries, and that money deposited by his family was arbitrarily withheld by prison guards. His health is extremely poor, and he is at risk of renal failure and suffers from multiple serious illnesses, including hydrocephalus, heart disease, emphysema and pneumonia.

This website will continue to follow Mr. Huang Qi’s situation in prison.