In a heartbreaking turn of events, two Chinese activists, Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun, found themselves behind bars after being falsely accused of assaulting police officers. Currently, their health conditions are a cause for concern, with their families’ requests for a change in their mandatory measures being rejected by the court.
Yin Dengzhen’s health has been deteriorating rapidly, with a drastic weight loss, difficulties in eating, and frequent vomiting leading to his hospitalization at the Shiyan People’s Hospital in Hubei province. Xiao Shujun suffers from frequent seizures and heart problems, putting both of them in life-threatening conditions.
Xia Beibei, speaking to a reporter, expressed her worries about her mother’s situation, citing a previous case where a visiting citizen died suddenly three months after being forcibly hospitalized by the government at the Shiyan People’s Hospital in 2023. She called for urgent attention from international human rights organizations, members of parliament, and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to prevent any tragic outcomes resulting from harsh detention conditions and medical deprivation for Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun.
The false “assaulting police” case dates back to June 29, 2023, when Yin Dengzhen was brutally attacked by security guards dispatched by the Supreme Court, resulting in three broken ribs, multiple injuries, and fainting due to having his mouth and nose covered with steel wire gloves. On the same night, Xiao Shujun was pushed into the middle of the road by several security guards, narrowly escaping being hit by a bus, and was rushed to the hospital due to sudden heart and seizure conditions. Despite multiple eyewitnesses reporting the incident to the police, Yin Dengzhen was instead charged with “assaulting police” by the Chaoyang Sub-bureau.
Due to the collection of crucial video evidence by their families, the Chaoyang District Prosecutor’s Office refused to arrest them, citing “insufficient evidence”.
On January 26, 2025, Yin Dengzhen was abducted from his home in Aijia Apartments, Daxing District, Beijing, by six unidentified individuals and taken back to his hometown of Shiyan in Hubei province. He was then criminally detained for “provoking trouble during a visit” at the Supreme Court, implicating his husband, Xiao Shujun, as well. The Supreme Court established the false “assaulting police” case of 2023 as evidence in their prosecution.
On July 15, Yin Dengzhen was secretly sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison at the Shiyan Municipal Detention Center, and on August 28, Xiao Shujun’s case was heard in the Tongjiang Municipal Court in Heilongjiang province, where the prosecutor recommended a sentence of 3 years and 6 months.
During the trial, Xiao Shujun publicly disclosed that government interceptors in Tongjiang had violently assaulted him multiple times, leading to his seizure and heart conditions. He vehemently denied the charges, claiming they were fabricated by the Supreme Court to persecute him unjustly.
In this trial, Xiao Shujun’s family, acting as his defense team, once again applied for a change in mandatory measures, citing his heart condition and inability to care for himself due to paralysis from the assaults. However, Judge Wang Jintao rejected their request, arguing that the lawyer had made multiple previous applications, and Xiao Shujun’s medical examination in the detention center did not deem him unfit for custody, while also branding him as a “fleeing offender” with potential social harm.
Family members revealed that the Tongjiang Municipal Detention Center had been refusing to let them deposit money for Xiao Shujun for several months, leading to him being unable to purchase essential daily items and food while in custody.
Xiao Shujun, a resident of Tongjiang City in Heilongjiang province, had his homestead in Jixian County illegally seized by local government officials and the Land Resources Bureau leaders through abuse of power, with the land illegally transferred to his neighbor through corrupt means. Despite winning an administrative lawsuit in 2013, the court refused to enforce the judgment, citing the inability of the court to enforce government decisions. Furthermore, the Heilongjiang High Court falsely claimed to have executed the judgment and closed the case, despite the non-implementation of the ruling.
Due to his continuous activism, Xiao Shujun had been visiting the Supreme Court to file complaints since 2021. However, instead of justice, he was subjected to violent beatings by more than thirty court police officers, led by former court police chief Li Fengwei on May 14, 2021, resulting in paralysis.
Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun had repeatedly sought help from the authorities, but the Chaoyang District police station in Beijing dismissed their concerns, claiming that their case fell under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
Xia Beibei highlighted the relentless violence and abuse of power by Li Fengwei, who had been assaulting visiting citizens under the guise of maintaining order at the Supreme Court, leading to false charges of “provoking trouble,” echoing the similar tactics used in the cases of Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun. She emphasized that the cases were not locally decided but manipulated by the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to intimidate other citizens through harsh sentencing.
She further revealed that after Yin Dengzhen’s harsh sentence of 4 years and 6 months, insiders informed her that multiple meetings at the Supreme Court discussed the cases of Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun, with tensions running high due to public scrutiny. Despite internal disagreements, hardliners insisted on imposing severe penalties on them without allowing any form of adjustment to their mandatory measures. This sheds light on how the cases were not decided at the local level but were controlled by the Supreme Court’s interference in lower-level courts, using harsh sentencing to intimidate other activists. This explains why despite Yin Dengzhen and Xiao Shujun winning their original (activism) cases, their judgments were unlawfully reversed into criminal charges under the guise of “provoking trouble”.