1. Jimmy Lai Chee-ying

Hong Kong media entrepreneur and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is serving a 20-month prison sentence, while also awaiting trial on national security and fraud charges, and faces a life sentence . Lai founded Next Digital Limited, a media company that published the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and Next Magazine, both of which were forced to close in 2021 due to continued pressure and threats from authorities.

2. Zhang Zhang

It has been more than a year since the freelance journalist was sentenced to four years in prison for “stirring up quarrels and causing unrest” after posting videos criticizing the government’s response to COVID-19. She went on a hunger strike behind bars and is now in very poor health.

3. Ilham Tohti

Uyghur writer, blogger and scholar Ilham Tohti is serving a life sentence for separatism. He is the founder of the Uyghur news site Uighurbiz, published in Chinese and Uyghur, and focused on Uyghur rights and social issues, and has been deprived of his liberty since 2014.

4. Huang Qi

Huang Qi, editor of the human rights news site 64 Tianwang, is serving a 12-year prison term for “deliberate disclosure of state secrets” and “illegal dissemination of state secrets to foreign countries.” strangers”. He is seriously ill and has been denied medical care, visits and communication with his mother, who is dying of cancer.

5. Wan Yiu-sing

Wan Yiu-sing, an internet radio host and commentator who covers political issues in mainland China and Hong Kong for independent internet radio channel D100, was arrested by Hong Kong police in February. Wan’s arrest came amid authorities’ crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. He is being held pending trial for alleged sedition and money laundering, and was hospitalized last February due to undisclosed health issues.

6. Sophia Huang Xueqin

Chinese freelance journalist Sophia Huang Xueqin disappeared on September 19, along with labor activist Wang Jianbin, a day before she was to fly to the UK to study abroad. On September 27, it was reported that both had been arrested for allegedly “inciting subversion of state power” and were being held under “residential surveillance in a designated place”, a form of extrajudicial detention. .

seven. mist fan

Fan is a reporter and producer covering the latest economic news in China for Bloomberg News, and although no charges are brought against her, she continues to be held in pretrial detention for allegedly endangering national security.

8. Zhou Weilin

A reporter for the Chinese-language human rights news website Weiquanwang, Zhou has posted news and commentary on social media on labor issues and the rights of people with disabilities. Zhou is currently serving a three-year-and-six-month sentence for fomenting quarrels and causing unrest, and he plans to appeal.

9. Gulmire Imin

Uyghur journalist Gulmire Imin is serving a 19-year and 8-month prison sentence for separatism, leaking state secrets and organizing an illegal protest. In 2009, police arrested Imin, who wrote articles critical of the government that year, and she was one of many administrators of Uyghur-language web forums who were arrested after the 2009 riots. in Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

ten. Gulchehra Hoja

After joining Radio Free Asia in the United States in 2001, journalist Gulchehra Hoja received a “red notice” from China, prohibiting her from returning home. Today, members of his family were deliberately the target of constant government surveillance and harassment and endured numerous detentions in retaliation for his journalism and his work at Radio Free Europe, according to Gulchehra and IWMF. . Following Gulchehra’s interviews with escapees, prison guards and other officials, in May 2019 she testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Dangers of Human Rights Reporting .