Sichuan human rights defender “Banner Brother” Feng Yongjun, sentenced to four years, completes his sentence today

On August 18, 2026, this outlet learned that Sichuan human rights defender “Banner Brother” Feng Yongjun, who was sentenced to four years, completes his sentence today

Feng Yongjun: Born on March 27, 1973, he is from Santai County, Mianyang, Sichuan Province. He was formerly a villager at No. 023, Group 2, Huanglong Village, Baiqing Town, Santai County, and is now a long-term resident of Jinzhou Road, Jinniu District, Chengdu. A real-name whistleblower, he is known as “Banner Brother,” a citizen defending his rights, and a rights defender detained in China. Because Feng Yongjun has always been upright and outspoken, daring to speak out about every injustice he encountered in his village in order to safeguard his own and the villagers’ rights and interests, he won considerable praise and recognition from the villagers. However, village leaders regarded him as someone who meddled excessively in other people’s affairs and subjected him to considerable resentment and retaliatory suppression;

On August 10–11, 2016, dissatisfied that Baiqing Reservoir, which had been contracted out for fish farming in the village, had been seriously polluted, and after multiple administrative lawsuits seeking redress over such issues as making the village reservoir contract public and the flow of reservoir funds had produced no result, he joined nine villagers in presenting a “dereliction of duty” banner each to the Santai County Environmental Protection Bureau and the Party committee and government of Baiqing Town, Santai County, as a warning. He was subsequently criminally detained by Santai County police on suspicion of “the crime of disrupting social order” and sent to the Santai County Detention Center. After his release, dissatisfied with the local police’s punishment decision, he filed a real-name report against the Santai County Public Security Bureau, alleging that its handling of the August 10, 2016, incident involving the delivery of the “dereliction of duty” banners had violated laws and regulations. He hoped that the Ministry of Public Security and the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department would instruct Mianyang police to investigate and handle the matter, but the outcome was that Mianyang police refused to provide information, citing the report on the situation as a work secret, a state secret, and a top state secret;

From December 18, 2017, to February 6, 2018, after repeatedly being illegally restricted in his personal freedom by police and after the Chengdu Qingyang District police had failed to perform their administrative duties, he filed a lawsuit with the Qingyang District Court. The court issued multiple administrative rulings refusing to accept the cases on the grounds that they “belonged to criminal cases and were not within the scope of review by the people’s courts.” Subsequently, having been driven to desperation, he repeatedly continued to report to the police and condemned the Qingyang District police’s inaction through Sina Weibo. On April 24, 2018, he was consequently given 14 days of administrative detention by the Chengdu Qingyang District police on the grounds of “disrupting the order of a public institution”;

On August 19, 2022, because Feng Yongjun had come to the office area on Shuhan Road of the Sichuan High Court for the 10th time to file complaints and defend his rights, he was again detained by police from Chengdu’s Pidu District and was subsequently criminally detained on suspicion of “the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” On September 8 of the same year, the Pidu District Procuratorate of Chengdu formally approved his arrest on the same charge. It is understood that he had handwritten a message to his wife asking her to help hire a lawyer. He was detained at the Chengdu Xindu District Detention Center. It was later learned that Feng Yongjun had been sentenced to four years in prison and transferred to Chengdu Jinjiang Prison to serve his sentence. His sentence was due to end on August 18, 2026.