Case Details and Biography of Yan Wenju, Chongqing Fengjie County Rights Defender Sentenced to 4 Years and 6 Months
(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On October 2, 2026, this website learned of the case details and biography of Yan Wenju, a rights defender from Fengjie County, Chongqing, who was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months. The details are now reported as follows:
Yan Wenju: A female rights defender from Fengjie County, Chongqing, and a resident of Kuizhou Subdistrict, Fengjie County, Chongqing. In November 2013, her family’s contracted land was illegally seized before the land acquisition process had legally begun and without the legally prescribed procedures for completing land acquisition compensation and resettlement. As a result, her entire family completely lost their most basic source of income and means of subsistence, and to this day they have no home and cannot survive. Yan Wenju was forced to report the matter to the relevant authorities in accordance with the law, but was subjected to vicious retaliation and repression by the Fengjie County Public Security Bureau. In August 2017, her family’s contracted land was illegally seized again. After repeated attempts to seek help from the police proved fruitless, Yan Wenju was forced to hang a banner on her family’s contracted land to stop the unlawful seizure of the land, but the Fengjie County Public Security Bureau maliciously distorted the facts and turned right and wrong on their heads, forcibly saddling her with the false charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentencing her to 1 year and 2 months in prison. After her release, she continued her rights defense efforts. In 2020, the Fengjie County public security, procuratorate, and courts again distorted the facts and sentenced her to 2 years and 6 months in prison on the charge of “organizing an illegal gathering.” After serving this sentence, Yan Wenju continued to petition in defense of her rights and was subjected to administrative detention multiple times.
Yan Wenju suffered an accidental traffic collision on December 16, 2023, resulting in a thoracic vertebra fracture, and has been hospitalized for treatment ever since, but the Fengjie County Public Security Bureau continued to retaliate against and frame her. On September 9, 2024, the Fengjie County Public Security Bureau again used the pretext of picking quarrels and provoking trouble to take Yan Wenju, who had been receiving treatment in hospital for a long time, into criminal detention, and arrested her on October 17. The pretext in this case was to falsely accuse her of forcibly taking and demanding things in connection with the hardship assistance provided to her by Kuizhou Subdistrict. While detained, Yan Wenju was confined to bed for long periods and unable to care for herself. Both she and her husband applied in accordance with the law to change the compulsory custodial measures, but the Fengjie County People’s Procuratorate refused. Because she insisted on not admitting guilt, the Fengjie County Court sentenced Yan Wenju to 4 years and 6 months in prison for picking quarrels and provoking trouble. Yan Wenju has now been sent to Chongqing Daping Prison to serve her sentence. Her sentence ends on March 8, 2029.
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