Wuhan Citizen Zhang Yi Arrested on July 28, 2026, for “Suspected Incitement to Subvert State Power”; Currently Detained at Lhasa Municipal Detention Center

（(Rights Defense Network Information Center report)）On August 5, 2026， this website learned： Wuhan citizen Zhang Yi was criminally detained by the Lhasa Municipal Public Security Bureau on July 18, 2026, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and was formally arrested on July 28 on the same charge， and is currently detained at the Lhasa Municipal Detention Center。

Zhang Yi’s biography：Born in 1965， he is from Wuhan, Hubei Province， and previously studied at the School of Law of Wuhan University’s School of Adult Education， In 1989, he was an electrician with the Wuhan Municipal Water Company， a pro-democracy dissident， former volunteer with the Wuhan Mutual Aid Association （group）， rights-defending citizen， human rights defender， and political prisoner detained in China。

Because Zhang Yi participated in the “1989 Democracy Movement”， he was subsequently arrested by the authorities and sentenced to two years for “the crime of gathering a crowd to disrupt traffic order”， and sent to Hongshan Prison to serve his sentence； he suffered brutal torture in prison， resulting in permanent deafness in one ear； after his release， because he continued to uphold dissenting views and for many years continued to commemorate “June 4·” and defend citizens’ rights， he was designated by the Wuhan authorities as a key target for stability-maintenance surveillance；

In June 2018， he was placed under administrative detention by Wuhan police for distributing photos of “Liu Xiaobo’s cenotaph” online and planning related commemorative activities； on December 30 of the same year, because he refused to comply with the “stability-maintenance demands” put forward by the public security domestic-security police， he was jointly intercepted and beaten by police from Wuhan’s Dongxihu District and Changqing Garden police station at the entrance to the parking lot beside the “Luo Yutou” restaurant on Lanjiang Road in Wuhan’s Hanyang District、

During the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020， because he was a volunteer with the Wuhan Mutual Aid Association （group） and in accordance with the group’s principle of providing assistance to the families of Wuhan’s victims， he bravely accepted interviews with foreign media many times and actively called for the rescue of Fang Bin （Fang Bin （CPPC number：00868）， who was secretly sentenced to three years for filming videos of the number of deaths in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan） and voiced support for rights-defending family members who had been arrested, such as Zhang Hai， and consequently was warned, reprimanded, and threatened by police more than ten times， to the extent that the Wuhan authorities once sought to collect information on him and frame him for “financial fraud” in order to silence him； during this period, his son Zhang Hongyuan also faced the risk of arrest for helping his father accept interviews with foreign media and film videos of public protests against lockdowns, forcing his son to leave China alone in April 2023 and travel to the Netherlands to seek political asylum；

In June 2026， he planned to travel to Tibet and Xinjiang， but the Exit-Entry Administration refused to issue him a border pass， after repeated negotiations, he was ultimately permitted to travel； on July 1, 2026， while he and his younger brother Zhang Xuan were traveling in Lhasa， both were suddenly taken away by police from Lhasa’s Chengguan District； his younger brother was released after giving a statement at the police station， but Zhang Yi was placed under administrative detention for 15 days， allegedly because, while visiting Sera Monastery, he wanted to borrow a prostration mat from a Tibetan person, but because they could not communicate due to the language barrier, he showed the person a photo of the Dalai Lama on his mobile phone， unexpectedly, the police learned of this and quickly took him away； on July 18, while he had been detained for 17 days, his younger brother received a call from Lhasa police saying that he had been criminally detained on suspicion of “incitement” and asking the family to transfer living expenses to him, and saying that the detention notice would be mailed to his family home in Wuhan a few days later； the family subsequently received the detention notice, which stated that Zhang Yi was criminally detained by the Lhasa Municipal Public Security Bureau on July 18, 2026, on the grounds of “suspected incitement to subvert state power” and was detained at the Lhasa Municipal Detention Center。

This website will continue to follow Zhang Yi’s situation，