Chongqing Rights Activist Wei Wenyuan, who was detained by the mayor of Tushan Town in Chongqing four years ago due to her petitioning activities, was imprisoned for four years and six months and was released from prison on December 3.
On the morning of December 3, more than ten petitioners from Chongqing braved the bone-chilling cold and drizzling rain to go to the Chongqing Women’s Prison to welcome Wei Wenyuan back home. The day before, the Chongqing petitioner community had spread the news of Wei Wenyuan’s release, hoping that everyone would come together to welcome her home.
Chongqing rights activist Zhao Liang told a reporter from the Epoch Times, “Wei Wenyuan was released on December 3, 2025, and she was sentenced to four and a half years for ‘provocation and trouble-making.'”
As of now, Wei Wenyuan still does not have a mobile phone and is unable to communicate with the outside world.
On June 4, 2021, Wei Wenyuan told her friends that the mayor of Tushan Town wanted to talk to her. By evening, her friends could not reach her, and when they called the mayor, he claimed that Wei Wenyuan had gone home after the conversation. However, many friends were unable to reach her on her phone.
Two days before going missing (June 2, 2021), Wei Wenyuan and her friend Guo Xingmei went to visit the 87-year-old mother of their friend Zhao Liang in Dadukou District. At that time, outside Zhao Liang’s mother’s house, Wei Wenyuan and Guo Xingmei witnessed a group of black security guards beating Zhao Liang, and Wei Wenyuan recorded a video on her phone, which led to her being taken to Yuejin Village Police Station.
At the police station, Wei Wenyuan was taken to the basement and made to sit on a criminal chair to give a statement. The police requested that she unlock her phone and delete the video, but she refused. Wei Wenyuan then stated, “We will file a complaint with the relevant authorities according to the law!”
On June 4, 2021, she received a call from the mayor of Tushan Town in Nan’an District, Chongqing, and went missing since then, seemingly evaporating from the face of the earth. It was only after a long time that petitioners learned she had been illegally sentenced and imprisoned.
Wei Wenyuan is a volunteer for “June Fourth Tianwang” and a citizen journalist, as well as an active petitioner in Chongqing who has been under close government surveillance. In March 2009, her home in Nan’an District, Chongqing, was violently demolished in her absence, leading her to begin her rights defense work. She had previously been unjustly imprisoned for two years and six months due to government suppression and framing.