Hubei human rights defender Ms. Xu Caihong, sentenced to 4 years, has completed her prison term

(Rights Protection Network Information Center report) On September 10, 2026, this outlet learned that Ms. Xu Caihong, a Hubei human rights defender sentenced to 4 years, has completed her prison term; her release date was September 7, 2026. There is still no specific information about her returning home. Xu Caihong and her husband He Bin have long observed and supported rights defenders, publicly commemorated June 4, and been arrested several times. On September 9, 2022, Xu Caihong and He Bin were again criminally detained; they were later sentenced to 4 years and 4 and a half years, respectively.

Xu Caihong: Female, born on February 21, 1970, a native of Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, a citizen of Shenghuo District 3 in Fancheng District, Xiangyang City, a Christian, self-employed, a rights-protecting citizen, and a human rights defender.

In 1999, because she and her husband founded the first brick-and-mortar store brand “Aidian” supermarket locally, and through their efforts in operating it quickly made it the most successful business in the local industry, they thereby touched the cheese of the interest groups of the local government of Xiangfan City, Hubei Province (renamed Xiangyang City from 2010 onward). They were not only frequently subjected to joint attacks by forces both legal and illegal, but were also repeatedly driven away, arrested, criminally detained, subjected to torture and beatings, and confined in “legal education classes” (in fact black jails) by police in multiple places, and were even wrongfully sentenced to prison; in 2001, they were subjected to retaliatory suppression because the couple (especially her husband He Bin) filed complaints against Li Keqiang and other top Chinese Communist Party leaders, and her husband was ultimately framed and imprisoned; however, on the second day after he was released upon completing his sentence, because their shop was retaliatorily vandalized and they were beaten by underworld personnel secretly instructed by the chief of the court’s criminal division, who explicitly stated that this was because they had offended the person who had sentenced him to prison, the couple thus embarked on the path of rights defense; however, after years of rights defense, not only did they achieve no results, but they were repeatedly suppressed by the Xiangyang authorities, causing the couple to suffer further violations of their rights, both physically and mentally; on March 3, 2008, she was sent back to her place of origin by interception personnel from Hubei Province and confined in a legal education class because she had gone to the mailbox beside the National People’s Congress to mail a letter concerning rights defense; during that period, beatings and abuse caused her to miscarry, after which she was never able to become pregnant again, and she was later transferred to a detention center, where she remained until the conclusion of that year’s Chinese Communist Party “Two Sessions”; in May 2013, she was criminally detained for 33 days by police in Beijing’s Chaoyang District because she donated money in Beijing to hurricane-stricken areas in the United States; her husband was also criminally detained, and was later sentenced to 8 months by the Chaoyang District People’s Court of Beijing; in February 2014, she was criminally detained for one month by police in Beijing’s Chaoyang District on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” because of the “Liyuan religious case,” and was held in Beijing No. 1 Detention Center; on June 4 of the same year, she was again criminally detained for one month by police in Beijing’s Dongcheng District because she participated in a June 4 commemoration activity, and was held in the Dongcheng District Detention Center; on June 1, 2016, she was again criminally detained in Fengtai District Detention Center by police in Beijing’s Fengtai District on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after being accused of intending to participate in a June 4 commemoration activity, and was subjected to torture, abuse, insults, and intimidation, until she was released on bail pending trial on June 29; on June 4, 2018, she was again criminally detained in Xicheng District Detention Center by police in Beijing’s Xicheng District on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” because she walked near Tiananmen Square; on September 8, 2022, because she had petitioned in Beijing for a long time over a rental dispute, she was taken back by interception personnel from Hubei Province, and the following day was again criminally detained by police in Fancheng District, Xiangyang City, on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”; on October 15, 2022, she was formally arrested by police in Fancheng District on the same charge; in March 2023, it became known that the case against the couple had been prosecuted, but although the court held two hearings afterward, it never issued a verdict; on August 12, 2024, it was learned that both of them had been sentenced separately by the Fancheng District Court of Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”: she was sentenced to 4 years in prison, with her sentence running until September 7, 2026; her husband He Bin was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison, with his sentence running until March 7, 2027.