Hubei Ezhou citizen Yu Qian, sentenced to 3 years, has his internet cut off for the third time after completing his prison term

（Rights Defense Network Information Center report）On April 13, 2026， this outlet learned： Hubei Ezhou citizen Yu Qian was arrested by the Chinese Communist authorities in October 2022 for posting remarks on Twitter protesting pandemic lockdowns， and was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison for the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble， completing his prison term and being released in September 2025。

After his release， Yu Qian has continued to be placed under close surveillance by the authorities， with surveillance cameras installed in front of and behind his home。 The Chinese Communist authorities still seek to ensure that he remains “under round-the-clock, dead-angle-free surveillance in every word and action、 every move and gesture”。 Recently， Yu Qian had his internet cut off for the third time since his release， and angrily denounced what he called the authorities’ “despicable dirty tactic of violating human rights and retaliating”。 He also declared： “Tyrannical and despotic rule cruelly poisons our people！ As long as life endures， resistance will not stop！”

Yu Qian’s biography：Born on June 8, 1986， he is from Ezhou City, Hubei Province， a citizen of Xingqiao Village, Zelin Town, Echeng District, Ezhou City， and previously worked in Shanghai， is a Christian， an active internet user， and commonly uses the Twitter account “Yu Qian 100 @tianfushiming”， as well as being a pro-democracy activist， human rights defender， and political prisoner。

In his early years, because his family was impoverished， he experienced all the hardships of life. After growing up, he worked in Shanghai； because of his strong sense of justice， he repeatedly harshly criticized senior leaders in his spare time for placing themselves above the rule of law， and described himself on Twitter as “both a tank man storming the fortress and Hubei’s Li Wenliang”， which caused senior leaders concerned with Shanghai Municipality and Hubei’s Ezhou City to become extremely dissatisfied with him and designate him as a target for suppression requiring urgent stability-maintenance surveillance；

On June 4, 2010， he fasted and prayed and sent text messages announcing his hunger strike to commemorate the 21st anniversary of June Fourth. Two days later, police from the Jianghai Police Station in Shanghai’s Fengxian District summoned him on suspicion of “disturbing public order” and imposed an administrative penalty of 200 yuan；

Unhappy with the penalty decision， he immediately initiated administrative reconsideration proceedings and sued the Fengxian District Government of Shanghai at the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court， hoping that the court would rule to revoke the administrative penalty imposed on him；

He was subsequently forced to return to his hometown in Hubei. During this period， because he continued to speak out and expose such problems in Ezhou City as corrupt official-business collusion、 black factories everywhere、 cancer villages、 the anti-organized-crime campaign、 the forced demolition of 30,000 households for airport land acquisition、 and government administrative falsification， Ezhou police filled the utility poles along the roads in his hometown village with surveillance cameras；

On April 12, 2022， Hubei Governor Wang Zhonglin visited Ezhou to provide guidance on pandemic prevention and control. Although the authorities said that the lockdown area was limited to approximately 300,000 people in Ezhou’s central urban area， all townships immediately issued notices of citywide static management under the governor’s instructions and in the name of the townships， actually locking down nearly one million people；

In response， he posted questions online asking whether it was reasonable and lawful for the townships to illegally impose additional lockdowns on 700,000 people without legal documents and illegally detain people on the streets and send them for centralized compulsory study. Because his online dissent immediately sparked widespread public discussion， he was summoned three times that year, on April 20、 May 24 and June 20， on grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” or “posting on overseas Twitter and maliciously smearing the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.” During the third summons， he had neither a summons document nor a summons warrant, was confined in a small dark room for more than seven hours, and was also administratively detained for 15 days；

In September 2022， because he again posted graphic and textual commentary about the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party on Twitter， he greatly angered the Hubei authorities. They therefore sent local police to install new surveillance cameras around his residence to conduct round-the-clock home surveillance， and he was again summoned several times on grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”

Unhappy with this， he twice submitted applications for administrative reconsideration and administrative complaints to the Huarong District Court in Ezhou City that month， but without result； on October 12, 2022， because Yu Qian again sued the Ezhou Intermediate People’s Court and posted the tweet “It is not a crime to speak out about June Fourth; it is a crime to monitor citizens’ communications”， police from the Zelin Police Station in Echeng District, Ezhou City, quickly seized him. He has been unreachable since then， and has never been released during his detention to date。 The location where he is being held is unknown。

It was later learned that Yu Qian had first been administratively detained for 15 days because of his Twitter remarks, particularly his protests against the pandemic lockdowns, and was arrested again immediately after walking out of the detention center upon completing the term； on October 29, 2022, he was criminally detained on charges of picking quarrels and provoking trouble and held at the Ezhou No. 1 Detention Center； he was arrested on December 2, 2022, and was subsequently sentenced to three years for the same crime. He completed his prison term and was released at the end of September 2025。

This outlet will continue to follow Yu Qian’s situation。