The Case of Detained Beijing Media Worker, Freelance Writer and Independent Documentary Filmmaker Du Bin Heard at Beijing Shunyi District Court on June 24

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On June 25, 2026, this outlet learned that the case of detained Beijing media worker, freelance writer and independent documentary filmmaker Du Bin was heard at 2:30 p.m. on June 24, 2026, at Beijing Shunyi District Court. Du Bin had originally planned to travel to Japan on October 16, 2025, but was taken away by Beijing police on the day before his departure (October 15) and held at the Beijing Shunyi Detention Center. When he was arrested, he was suspected of the offense of picking quarrels and provoking trouble; the offense alleged in the indictment is not yet known. Details of the hearing remain unclear.

Du Bin's biography: Born in 1972, a native of Tancheng County, Linyi City, Shandong Province; Beijing media worker, freelance writer, independent documentary filmmaker, a “war correspondent” in the field of human rights, a person convicted for his speech, and a political prisoner detained in China.

In his early years, he worked successively in journalism at the Beijing Youth Daily, Workers' Daily and Social Legal Weekly; beginning in 2004, he started taking news photographs for the Beijing bureau of the New York Times, and his work was published in a number of international media outlets, including the U.S. New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, Time, the British Guardian and the German magazine Stern; but beginning in 2011, after China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs refused to grant him a work permit, he became a freelance writer and independent documentary filmmaker. Because he published and independently produced a considerable number of books and documentaries recording the lives and struggles of disadvantaged groups in China, he came to be known as a “war correspondent” in the field of human rights. However, for precisely this reason, his writing and documentary style and whereabouts became targets of tracking and suppression by the Chinese Communist government. In 2013, because he filmed and published in Hong Kong the documentaries Women on the Heads of Little Devils and the book Vaginal Coma: Testimonies of Torture Survivors from the Masanjia Women's Reeducation-through-Labor Camp, which reflected and exposed the torture and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and petitioners at the Masanjia Reeducation-through-Labor Camp in Liaoning Province, he was criminally detained by Beijing police in June 2013 on suspicion of “disclosing state secrets” and held at the Fengtai District Detention Center, from which he was released only after more than a month. In 2014, he published his edited book The Tiananmen Massacre in Hong Kong, making his situation increasingly sensitive in mainland China. In December 2020, he was again criminally detained by Beijing police on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and held at the Daxing District Detention Center; he was released on bail after 37 days.

After his release, he told foreign media in an interview that his arrest was likely related to the authorities' desire to investigate in particular whether he had received funds from overseas. At the detention center, he was interrogated five times in succession, for more than three hours each time. The main subjects concerned all of his manuscripts since he wrote his first book in 2007, including how the books were published, how he sent the manuscripts to publishers for distribution, the number of copies printed and the actual amounts he earned. After repeated questioning, the procuratorate concluded that it could not find evidence, and that his financial situation and royalty income were normal, and ultimately had no choice but to release him on bail. However, he stressed that he had committed no crime and would still publish, according to the original plan, his new book, Red Terror: Lenin's Communist Experiment, in January 2021.

On October 15, 2025, as he was preparing to travel abroad and fly to Japan the following day, he was suddenly taken away from his rented residence by police from the Gaoliying Police Station in Shunyi, Beijing, and has been out of contact ever since. His younger sister, Du Jirong, later learned after making inquiries through various channels that he had been criminally detained by Shunyi District police in Beijing on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On December 3, she learned that his defense lawyer had successfully met with him and that he had been formally arrested by the Shunyi District Procuratorate. However, when asked why he had been detained and arrested, police refused to disclose details of the case, citing “state secrets.” He is currently being held at the Beijing Shunyi Detention Center (Nihe Village (south end), Mapo Town, Shunyi District, Beijing; postal code: 101300).

This outlet will continue to follow developments in Du Bin's case.