Hubei Human Rights Defender Yin Xu'an Spends His 52nd Birthday in Enforced Disappearance Today

(Rights Defense Network Information Center Report) On August 27, 2026, this network learned: Hubei human rights defender Yin Xu'an spent his 52nd birthday in enforced disappearance today, having been forcibly disappeared for 382 days.

Yin Xu'an has been involved in rights defense since 2007, long participating in resistance actions such as observing and supporting. He has been repeatedly detained, sent to labor camps, and locked in black jails; he has been imprisoned twice, with a cumulative sentence of eight years. On August 11, 2025, he was intercepted and repatriated when traveling to Beijing for medical treatment, and has been out of contact since.

Yin Xu'an was once sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, and his condition and health in prison were very poor. After completing his sentence, he was illegally detained for more than 1 year and 4 months before being released home. His experience can be described in four words: "better off dead", and his physical condition is extremely poor. Yin Xu'an is seriously ill, with extremely high-risk hypertension (the highest blood pressure reached systolic 300 / diastolic 220), and severe coronary heart disease, urgently needing surgery. Yin Xu'an went to Beijing purely because his illness was serious and he needed medical treatment, but the CCP authorities repeatedly intercepted him and have subjected him to enforced disappearance and illegal detention until now, which is a serious violation of his right to life and health.

Biography of Yin Xu'an: Born on August 27, 1974, a native of Daye City, Hubei Province, former villager of Bao'an Town, Daye City, Hubei Province, public interest rights defender, democrat, and political prisoner.

In 2003, because he sued the Civil Affairs Bureau of Liangzihu District, Ezhou City, Hubei Province over the illegal registration of his divorce dispute, the local court made a perversion of justice, and the local Higher Court failed to act on it, forcing him to petition in Beijing in 2007;

Since November 2007, he has repeatedly suffered illegal punishment and harm from the authorities due to petitioning. He has been illegally detained 6 times and locked in black jails 8 times by the authorities for petitioning to defend his rights and participating in observing, supporting, and resistance actions. In 2009, during then-US President Obama's visit to China, he was sentenced to 2 years of re-education through labor and delayed release for 3 months by the Hubei authorities for applying for a parade and demonstration at the Security Corps of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau. During his time in re-education through labor, he repeatedly fainted and received emergency treatment due to stage 3 hypertension (extremely high-risk level) and various other diseases (such as hepatitis B, cholecystitis, and gallstones);

Since 2012, due to his rights defense in Beijing, he began to pay more attention to democratic public interest rights defense. In 2012, he actively participated as an academic representative for direct democratic elections at the 18th National Congress, calling for the promotion of political system reform, the abolition of the re-education through labor system, and crackdowns on black jails. From July to October 2012, he was illegally detained by the authorities for 42 days for reporting and suing the local government of Hubei Province for illegal land requisition, suing the Hubei Provincial Re-education Through Labor Committee for illegal extensions and illegal elections;

Starting in 2013, he actively participated in support and observation actions, such as the independent candidate Liu Ping case in Xinyu, Jiangxi; the Xue Fushun incident in Qufu, Shandong; the Sun Feng "inciting subversion" case in Zibo, Shandong; the April 29 memorial activity for Lin Zhao; the trial of Zhao Fengsheng's "inciting subversion" case in Hengyang, Hunan; the Zhengzhou Ten Gentlemen incident; the Zhang Xiaoyu case in Jiaozuo; the trial of Suzhou veteran Fan Mugen's forced demolition case; and supporting the case of rights defense citizen Wang Jian with rights defense netizens such as Wang Fulei.

On March 8, 2015, he was arrested by the authorities for forwarding the "List of Stability Maintenance Personnel from Daye City, Hubei in Beijing" on WeChat and was administratively detained for 15 days. On March 24, he was criminally detained on suspicion of "leaking state secrets" and later released;

On July 25, 2015, along with rights activists such as Wang Fang and Geng Caiwen, he wore T-shirts supporting "the Butcher" (Wu Gan) in front of the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, took photos, and uploaded them to online media. On July 28, he was taken from his home by police and detained at the Bao'an Town Police Station in Daye City, and transferred to criminal detention on August 23 of the same year. On September 26, he was formally arrested on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." On September 13, 2016, his case was tried at the Daye City Court in Hubei Province, and on May 27, 2017, he was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison by the court for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." During his detention, he was tortured and beaten by prison guards and cell bosses, leaving him physically and mentally devastated, and his multiple requests to see a lawyer were rejected;

On December 27, 2018, he was released early after a sentence reduction. However, shortly after his release, during the CCP's "Two Sessions," he was criminally detained by the police of Daye City, Hubei Province, on suspicion of "intentionally leaking state secrets" and was abused until he was finally released in January 2019;

On May 23, 2019, Yin Xu'an filed petitions and defended rights because Yuan Qifa, Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of Bao'an Town, Daye City, and Yin Qingsong, Party Branch Secretary and Village Chief of Jintang Village, without the consent of the villagers of Yin Sifangwan in Jintang Village, not only forcibly measured the collectively-owned land they relied on for survival, but also drove excavators to the scene to carry out illegal forced land acquisition. He then suffered retaliatory strikes repeatedly and was criminally detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble";

In October 2019, his case was prosecuted by the Daye City Procuratorate to the local court. Although his case was tried by the Daye City Court in Hubei Province on January 19, 2020, it was delayed for a long time and he was finally sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison by the court for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" on July 21, 2021, with the prison term ending on November 22, 2023. It is reported that his physical condition in prison was extremely poor, and he had been rescued several times. The second instance of Yin Xu'an's case was announced on January 28, 2022, maintaining the original sentence of four and a half years. He previously served his sentence in Huangzhou Prison.

This network will continue to pay close attention to Yin Xu'an's situation.