Xinjiang Democracy and Rights-Defending Citizen Zhao Haitong, Sentenced to 14 Years, Spends His 64th Birthday in Prison

（Rights Defense Network Information Center report）On May 23, 2026，this outlet learned：Xinjiang human rights defender Zhao Haitong, who was sentenced to 14 years and is currently serving his sentence at Wusu Prison in Xinjiang, spent his 63rd birthday in prison on May 22，This was the 13th birthday he has spent in prison。

Zhao Haitong has long appealed on behalf of disadvantaged groups and prisoners of conscience，and later went south to Guangdong to participate in protest activities such as holding up placards on the streets。He was criminally detained on August 10, 2013，and on November 7, 2014, was sentenced to 14 years for the crime of inciting subversion of state power，He is currently serving his sentence at Wusu Prison in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region。His sentence ends on August 8, 2027。

Profile of Zhao Haitong：Born on May 22, 1962，he is from Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province，a Xinjiang citizen who defends democracy and rights, and a political prisoner in China。

Because of his long-term efforts to appeal for the rights of disadvantaged groups in the Xinjiang region、Uyghur groups, and political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, among others，in recent years he also went south to Guangdong，actively participating with rights-defending citizens and human rights defenders in various parts of the south in street democracy movements，holding various placard-holding and rally activities in support of others，and was therefore highly welcomed by the public in the places where he stayed；

On February 21, 2013，he was brutally beaten by Wuhan police, nearly losing his life, when he went to Wuhan, Hubei, to meet human rights activist Qin Yongmin；

In April 2013，because he sought to express the legitimate and lawful demands of rights-defending citizens, he repeatedly held up placards at Guangzhou Railway Station without fear of the risks, promoting democratic ideas and protesting such things as “the hooligan government’s suppression of democracy activists”；

In June 2013，he was forcibly detained by police for participating in support of the school-exclusion case involving Zhang Annie, the daughter of Anhui democracy activist Zhang Lin；

On August 9, 2013，he was criminally detained by Xinjiang police for helping Uyghur citizens defend their rights in Turpan City, Xinjiang, and was held at Liudaowan Detention Center in Ürümqi, Xinjiang；on September 12, 2013，Xinjiang police announced that he had been formally arrested on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”；on November 7, 2014，he was ultimately secretly sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Ürümqi Intermediate People’s Court of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on the same charge，His sentence ends on August 8, 2027。

He is currently serving his sentence at Wusu Prison in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region（Wusu Prison, Wusu City, Tacheng Prefecture, Xinjiang; postcode 833006）.