Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds the following: Prominent human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared in August 2017, reportedly into state custody, and has been subject to various forms of detention since 2006, including severe torture, for his work defending religious minorities and farmers facing land expropriations and for writing open letters condemning the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and Christians. In 2023, lawyer Ding Jiaxi and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong were sentenced to 12 and 14 years in prison, respectively, for subversion of state power in connection with their advocacy for constitutional reform.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined their detentions to be arbitrary. Hong Kong authorities detained Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in August 2020 on the charges of conspiracy to fraud and collusion with a foreign country , an offense under the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL). Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, a prodemocracy newspaper and his detention is believed to be part of a government effort to suppress free press and intimidate pro-democracy advocates.
Hong Kong barrister Tonyee Chow Hang-tung was sentenced in 2023 to 4.5 months in jail for defying the demands of the national security police for information on the disbanded civil society group commonly known as Hong Kong Alliance, which organized annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. The recent sentence lengthened a 22-month prison term Chow received for organizing vigils in 2020 and 2021. Falun Gong practitioner Xu Na was detained in 2020 along with 12 others and later given an 8-year sentence for allegedly sharing photos of Beijing street scenes during the COVID–19 pandemic with an overseas publication and for possession of Falun Gong materials at their homes.
Xu previously served two prison sentences in connection with her practice of Falun Gong and in 2008 her husband Yu Zhou died in police custody. Zhou Deyong was detained in 2021 in Shandong Province after police raided his home and confiscated Falun Gong materials that reportedly belonged to his wife, who was previously detained for her religious activities. Authorities reportedly prevented Zhou from meeting with his lawyer and failed to notify Zhou’s family members of his detention promptly, in violation of China’s Criminal Procedure Law.
In 2023, Zhou was sentenced to eight years in prison for organizing and using a cult to undermine implementation of the law . Niu Tengyu was detained in 2019 as part of a crackdown on users of the internet site EsuWiki, following the alleged publication of the personal information of relatives of Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping. Niu was held in residential surveillance at a designated location , during which time he was reportedly severely tortured. In late 2020, Niu received a 14-year prison sentence.
Yang Chih-yuan was detained in 2022 and accused of promoting Taiwan independence and engaging in separatist activities. In 2024, authorities sentenced Yang to nine years in prison. Yang’s alleged separatist activities took place between 2008 and 2020 while he was in Taiwan. He is the first Taiwanese national to be charged with separatism under Article 103 of the PRC Criminal Law. Ruan Xiaohuan was detained in 2021 in connection with his social media account and his blog, where he provided anonymous guidance for circumventing government internet censorship and wrote political analysis critical of Chinese authorities, including coverage of the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
He also separately documented high-ranking officials’ hidden wealth. He was sentenced in 2023 to seven years in prison for inciting subversion of state power . Tibetan community leader Anya Sengdra was initially detained in 2018 in connection with his claims that local officials had misappropriated poverty alleviation funds meant for Tibetan nomads. In 2019 he was sentenced to 7 years in prison, accused by officials of disturbing public order for leading groups to discuss anti-corruption and environmental advocacy.
Authorities delayed his expected September 2025 release from prison. Artist Gao Zhen remains detained for insulting or slandering heroes and martyrs, reportedly in connection with his artwork, including art with the theme of reassessing Mao Zedong’s rule. Gao is a lawful permanent resident of the United States, and his seven-year-old son is an American citizen, who is prevented, via an exit ban from leaving China along with his mother. Renagul Gheni, a Uyghur elementary school teacher, was detained in 2018 and later given a 17-year sentence reportedly for offering prayers at her father’s funeral and her possession of a Quran.
Uyghur ethnographer Rahile Dawut was reportedly sentenced to life in prison on a charge related to endangering state security . Friends and other observers suggested authorities may have detained her due to her efforts to preserve Uyghur culture and heritage, or her foreign connections. She formerly taught at Xinjiang University and is well regarded for her scholarly research on Uyghur cultural traditions. Meryem Emet was detained in 2017 and later sentenced to 20 years in prison on an unknown charge reportedly related to her marriage to a Turkish national, and her having met and spoken with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his 2012 visit to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Lobsang Trinle, a monk at Kirti Monastery in Sichuan Province, was detained by police in 2021 and sentenced to 5 years in prison reportedly for sharing the 14th Dalai Lama’s teachings and writings about the Dalai Lama with other Tibetans. A Tibetan writer known by the pen name Sabuche, Thubten Lodroe was detained and later given a 4-year and 5-month sentence in 2021 reportedly for his writings on Tibetan society, politics, and language rights. He was reportedly subjected to abuse in prison, including forced labor, and in 2024 was hospitalized in serious condition.
Wang Yi, pastor of the unregistered Protestant Early Rain Covenant Church was detained in 2018 after drafting an open letter denouncing restrictions on religious freedom that was signed by over 400 other Chinese church leaders and he was later given a 9-year sentence for subversion of state power . The Early Rain church was forcibly closed as part of a broader crackdown on unregistered churches and places of worship in China. Hao Zhiwei, a pastor at an unregistered Protestant church was arrested and in 2022 given an 8-year sentence because she refused to join the government-approved Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement or Chinese Christian Council.
Peng Lifa was detained shortly after he hung banners from Sitong Bridge in Beijing calling for the removal of Xi Jinping, calling for elections, and criticizing China’s harsh zero-COVID policy measures. Peng’s whereabouts and condition, or any potential charges against him, remain unknown. Li Kangmeng was detained in connection with her participation in the white paper protests against harsh zero-COVID policy measures. Multiple reports assert that Li Kangmeng was the first to raise a sheet of white paper as a form of protest.
The legal basis for Li’s detention and the location of her detention site are unknown. Dong Yuyu was detained in 2022 while at lunch with a Japanese diplomat and placed in residential surveillance at a designated location and later charged with espionage . Dong Yuyu is a well-known journalist, who had worked for the New York Times and Chinese publications, and held academic fellowship at various universities in Japan and at Harvard University. His family has not been allowed to meet with him since his detention.
The number of political prisoners in the People’s Republic of China remains unknown, given active digital censorship and free speech restrictions. The Political Prisoner Database of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China is a valuable source of information on political prisoners in the People’s Republic of China and currently contains 2,506 active cases of detention, referring to political and religious prisoners currently known or believed to be detained or imprisoned, or under coercive controls.
A bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers’ nominated a group of political prisoners in the People’s Republic of China, including Hong Kong for the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize, including Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Tonyee Chow Hang-tung, Gwyenth Ho Kwai.lam, and Lee Cheuk-yan, and mainland China’s Zhang Zhan, Peng Lifa, and Li Kangmeng. The nominations honored these ardent champions of peace, freedom and human rights and focus international advocacy on efforts for their release.
The Chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China nominated Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, Ilham Tohti, and Jimmy Lai for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. The People’s Republic of China detains the family members of United States citizens and permanent residents in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, including Gulshan Abbas, Ekpar Aset, and the family members of former Radio Free Asia employees, and uses these detentions and other forms of intimidation and harassment to silence advocacy on behalf of their loved ones.
The People’s Republic of China detains more Americans than any other country. Repressive governments around the world continue to detain an unknown number of individuals for their exercise of internationally recognized human rights, including in Cuba, Belarus, Hong Kong, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Russia, Turkey, and Vietnam, among others. It is a global problem in need of a global response from the United States and its allies and partners.