Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Steps In as Counsel – Shifts in Testimony Aligned with Legal Strategy After Hotel Departure and Overnight Stay at Alternate Location

The prominent human rights lawyer Xie Yang was sentenced to five years in prison by a Chinese court on March 23, 2026, on politically motivated charges of “inciting subversion of state power,” according to Human Rights Watch and multiple verified sources.

The Changsha Intermediate People’s Court cited several of Xie Yang’s WeChat posts as the basis for the verdict, with his former wife, Chen Guiqiu, confirming the details on social media. The court also ordered the confiscation of 100,000 yuan (approximately US$14,500).

Human Rights Watch stated that the legal proceedings against Xie Yang were marred by serious violations of due process, including the extension of his pretrial detention 13 times for over four years and the denial of his lawyers’ participation in hearings. His October 2025 trial was held in secret, with police informing his family only afterward.

The organization emphasized that the trial violated the right to a fair trial under international human rights law and breached China’s Criminal Procedural Law, which guarantees the right to a defense, public trial hearings, and time limits for criminal investigations.

With time served, Xie Yang’s sentence is expected to conclude in January 2027. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has previously recognized his detention as arbitrary and called for his immediate release.

Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the case reflects Beijing’s “utter contempt for the rule of law” and aims not only to persecute Xie Yang but to intimidate all lawyers seeking to protect Chinese people’s rights.

The sentencing adds to a pattern of legal pressure on human rights lawyers in China, including the recent case of Lu Siwei, who was sentenced to 11 months in prison in April 2025 for allegedly “illegally crossing the border” after being detained in Laos and forcibly repatriated to China in violation of international non-refoulement principles.

Xie Yang has been subjected to years of persecution, harassment, and surveillance due to his work defending human rights, which led to the revocation of his law license in 2021 and the imposition of an exit ban preventing him from leaving China.