Case details and biography of Ms. Jin Hanqin, a rights defender from Yunxi County, Shiyan City, Hubei Province, sentenced to 8 years and 6 months

(Information Center of the China Human Rights Defenders report) On June 26, 2026, this outlet learned the case details and biography of Ms. Jin Hanqin, a rights defender from Yunxi County, Shiyan City, Hubei Province, who was sentenced to 8 years and 6 months. They are hereby reported as follows:

Jin Hanqin: Female, born on February 15, 1975, from Yunxi County, Shiyan City, Hubei Province; a resident of Group 2, Tumen Town Residents’ Committee, Yunxi County; a professional rights defender whose rights have been violated; a human rights defender; and a detained rights defender in China.

In the 1990s, she studied with her elder sister Jin Hanyan at the Shiyan Agricultural School in Hubei Province (now renamed the Shiyan Science and Technology School of Hubei Province), graduating in 1997. Under Document E Bi Ban [1997] No. 009 in effect at the time, both sisters should have been promptly assigned clearly defined jobs by the local government and granted civil-service positions. However, the Yunxi County government of Shiyan City failed to implement this for the two of them as required by the document, instead giving their civil-service positions and jobs to others. For this reason, the two of them demanded several times that the local government resolve the civil-service issue in accordance with the spirit of the document. After their complaints repeatedly went unresolved, they were forced to travel to the provincial capital and Beijing several times to petition and defend their rights. During their petitioning, relevant departments of the Hubei provincial and central governments both gave clear replies to their complaints, stating that jobs would be arranged in accordance with the document. However, the officials governing their hometown (Lu Fuchang, secretary of the Yunxi County Party Committee) acted for personal gain, using their authority to harshly suppress and pressure them, forcing them into submission. Beginning in August 2005, the sisters, who had originally been notified while petitioning in Beijing to report for work at the county tobacco bureau on August 30, returned to the county, but the Yunxi County police actually confiscated their written notification and inexplicably and unlawfully placed both of them in administrative detention for 15 days. They were later subjected to one year and nine months of re-education through labor. From May 21 to October 23, 2007, because they continued petitioning, they were unlawfully locked up at a secret detention site privately established by Yunxi County Party Committee Secretary Lu Fuchang—the Sigou Tobacco Station (inside an abandoned compound)—causing their grandmother to die in anguish as a result. On March 7 and August 9, 2008, they were twice taken back from Beijing by people dispatched by the local authorities and locked up at the Tumen Town government of Yunxi County, for a total of 53 days. Subsequently, the civil-service issue concerning the two sisters was reported in April 2008 through the mayor’s hotline and public supervision telephone line, and it was announced online on June 12 of the same year that they would be granted civil-service positions. Nevertheless, local officials continued to turn a deaf ear, knowingly violating the law, repeatedly taking the two sisters back from Beijing in police vans and locking them up at the Tumen Town welfare institution or psychiatric hospital, where they were beaten, threatened, intimidated, and abused. On May 18, 2012, while she was hospitalized at Taihe Hospital in Shiyan City awaiting surgery, she was again arrested by the police and once more locked up at the Maoping welfare institution (during the same period, her elder sister was also kidnapped from Wuhan and taken to the same welfare institution for detention). During their detention, both women were forcibly made to take medication and injected with toxic substances, and nearly died. In April 2022, the two sisters again went to Beijing to petition and defend their rights, exposing what had happened to them in the hope of obtaining assistance from the central government. However, they were quickly sent back to their place of origin and detained for a prolonged period. On June 14 of the same year, the two were once again criminally detained by the Yunxi County police on suspicion of “the crime of seeking out trouble,” and were later formally indicted by the Yunxi County Procuratorate on the same charge. Ultimately that year, both sisters were sentenced by the Yunxi County Court to 8 years and 6 months in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Dissatisfied with the judgment, she filed an appeal. The following year, the Shiyan Intermediate People’s Court of Hubei Province issued a second-instance judgment, requesting that the above judgment be revoked in accordance with the law. On February 24, 2025, it was learned that she had again filed a retrial application with the Hubei High People’s Court, requesting that she be declared not guilty in accordance with the law, but there has been no information about subsequent developments to date. She is currently detained at the Yunxi County Detention Center in Shiyan City (Dongfang Community, Chengguan Town, Yunxi County, Shiyan City, Hubei Province, postal code: 442600).