Niu Tengyu (牛腾宇) is a computer programmer from Henan Province serving a fourteen-year prison sentence in Guangdong in connection with the EsuWiki case. In May 2026, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted an opinion finding his imprisonment arbitrary and calling for his immediate release and reparations.
Background
Chinese Human Rights Defenders reports that Niu was born in 1999, taught himself computing from a young age, and volunteered from 2018 as a web administrator for EsuWiki, a satirical website.
2019 detention and prosecution
CHRD reports that plainclothes officers detained Niu at his family home in Henan in August 2019 as part of a broader operation connected to EsuWiki and related online material. Sources differ on the precise detention date, giving August 16 or August 22, 2019. CHRD also reports that Niu spent forty-five days under “residential surveillance at a designated location.”
Conviction and sentence
CHRD reports that a Guangdong court convicted Niu on three charges: “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” violating citizens’ personal information, and illegal business activity. He received a combined fourteen-year prison sentence and a 130,000-yuan fine. Sources differ on whether the first-instance verdict dates to December 2020 or February 6, 2021; the sentence itself is consistent across the records. His appeal was rejected on April 23, 2021.
He is reported held at Sihui Prison in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. Human-rights reporting gives September 10, 2033 as the term endpoint.
Torture allegations and UN finding
Niu told lawyers that he was beaten, deprived of sleep and food, strapped to a tiger chair, burned, and suspended by his handcuffed wrists while in custody. These allegations are reported by CHRD and remain source-attributed.
In July 2026, CHRD reported that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had adopted a May 2026 opinion finding Niu’s imprisonment arbitrary and in violation of rights to liberty, fair trial and freedom of expression. The Working Group called for his immediate release and an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.
Evidence limits
No public PRC court judgment was located in the reviewed record. The detention-date and first-instance-verdict-date variants are preserved rather than harmonized. Torture and medical-treatment claims remain attributed to Niu, his family and lawyers through human-rights reporting.
Media Profile & Archive: Niu Tengyu / 牛腾宇 — Media Profile & Archive.