Li Jinhong (李金鸿) was one of five defendants in the 1990 Chenzhou case concerning the organization described in the court judgment as the “Democratic China Front — Mountain Branch” (民主中国阵线山地支部). Born about 1963 in Zhuzhou County, Hunan, he worked as a cadre at the Zhouyuanshan sub-branch of the Zixing branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Primary-source case record
The Chenzhou Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court criminal judgment (1990) 郴一初字第88号, issued November 7, 1990, convicted five defendants of the crime of forming a counterrevolutionary clique (反革命集团罪). The judgment describes the group as drafting a program, assigning roles, recruiting members, creating an emblem, collecting dues, and distributing political leaflets.
The judgment’s identity block for Li Jinhong records him as male, 26 years old at sentencing, a native of Zhuzhou County, and a cadre at the Zhouyuanshan sub-branch of the Zixing branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, living at No. 34, Seventh Village, Baoyuan Coal Mine.
Li Jinhong was treated as a subordinate participant (accessory): the court found he actively took part in the group’s activities and offered advice. He was placed in shelter-and-investigation on March 4, 1990 by the Zixing City Public Security Bureau and formally arrested on June 6, 1990. He received four years of imprisonment, calculated from March 4, 1990 through March 3, 1994, plus two years of deprivation of political rights. The judgment lists no defense counsel for him.
Co-defendants Bai Xiaomao and Jiang Fuxing were found to be principal organizers (eight years each); Chen Xuejin and Li Yumin were also treated as accessories (three years and one year).
Post-sentence life
The years after the nominal end of Li Jinhong’s sentence are documented only through a 2023 interview report. According to that account, he could not return to his bank post and lived on odd jobs while remaining under chronic surveillance and harassment, including home searches around politically sensitive dates. The account states he was detained in 1999 and again detained and secretly held in 2006; in 2011 state-security personnel seized a US$1,000 overseas medical donation for his ill daughter, treating it as bail money. He married Zhang Yan in 2007 and had two daughters; in his later years he worked a hospital medical-cleaning job.
Death
The same 2023 interview report states that Li Jinhong died in a car accident on his way to work in February 2020 (the exact date is unconfirmed). His widow disputes the account of the crash, citing broken surveillance cameras near the site, the absence of a recorded speed for the other vehicle, and refused requests for an autopsy; no official crash report or independent account has been located. These details are preserved as her attributed claims, not established facts. A fellow defendant who tried to view the body was confined at home by police.
Free China records his death as reported but uncorroborated: the exact date and circumstances are not verified. No release record from his 1990–1994 sentence has been located; no release is inferred merely from the sentence end date.
Evidence limitations
The criminal-case facts above rest on the surviving photographed pages (1, 4 and 5) of the court judgment, from a family-held copy. Pages 2 and 3 have not been recovered. All post-1994 biographical details and the death account come from a single 2023 report based on an interview with his widow; no independent corroboration has been located. The organization’s Chinese name in the judgment is read here as 民主中国阵线山地支部 (a separate working transcription rendered it as 民主中国华南山区支部); a higher-resolution reading of the judgment photograph would settle the transcription.
Identity note
Li Jinhong is distinct from the contemporary Industrial and Commercial Bank of China independent board director of the same name, appointed in 2026 — the two should not be merged.
Sources
Hunan Province Chenzhou Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court, Criminal Judgment (1990) 郴一初字第88号, issued November 7, 1990, surviving photographed pages 1, 4 and 5; Women’s Rights in China (WRIC), “六四反革命遺孀攜女「走線」背後的故事” (Zhang Jing reporting, July 1, 2023), an interview with his widow Zhang Yan and the family-held judgment photographs (English edition at crchina.org).
Media profile & archive
The sources and evidence behind this profile are documented in the companion archive: Li Jinhong / 李金鸿 — Media Profile & Archive.