Political Prisoners

Political Prisoners: Section Hub · Editorial Standards · Sources & Attribution · Corrections & Updates

Documentation & Method: Editorial Standards · Research Methodology · Sources & Attribution · Corrections & Updates

A continuously maintained research and advocacy directory for political-prisoner cases, custody status, sentencing changes, documented disappearances and releases. Each person should have one canonical profile; regional and status directories organize those profiles without treating an unfinished profile backlog as the size of the underlying prisoner population.

How to read the numbers

Source records = cases reported in an identified source corpus and awaiting or undergoing FreeChina reconciliation.
FCM verified current = cases individually reconciled by FreeChina as presently in custody or, where specifically stated, documented disappearance/whereabouts unknown.
Profile linked = records already connected to a canonical FreeChina person profile. A missing profile does not mean the person is excluded from the source record universe.

View Current Political Prisoners — by region →

Mainland China · Hong Kong · Macao

Current Political Prisoners

Master directory: Political Prisoner Directory — All Regions & Statuses · Mainland China — All Statuses A–Z · Hong Kong · Macao

Current status is shown only when supported by sourced case records. Sentence arithmetic is not presented as a guaranteed release date. Appeals, house arrest, exit bans and post-release restrictions are tracked separately.

Mainland China

Source intake universe: 1,638 current-custody records from Rights Defense Network / 维权网 Issue 131 are loaded for reconciliation. The source roster is not treated as a final mainland-only count because it contains a small number of Hong Kong and Macao records pending regional reconciliation.

FCM individually reconciled mainland-current subset: 26. This is a verified subset, not the total number of current political prisoners in mainland China.

Browse the 1,638-record source intake and current mainland directory →

Current custody / documented disappearance → · Former / released → · Present status under review → · All statuses A–Z →

Hong Kong

FCM verified current Hong Kong custody: 37. One additional cross-border custody case held in mainland China is tracked separately and is not included in the 37.

Browse the Hong Kong current, former/released and other-status directory →

The Hong Kong status directory is the canonical list destination. The separate 1997–present erosion timeline uses selected people and cases to explain historical change; it is not the complete prisoner list. Historical cumulative counts from external datasets are also kept separate from the present-custody count.

Macao

FCM verified current cases: 1.

Au Kam San (區錦新) — detained in Macao’s first national-security prosecution; trial completed September 18, 2026 and judgment is pending.

Browse the Macao current & former directory →

Former Political Prisoners

Former-prisoner status remains part of the historical record after release or sentence completion. Former cases are kept separate from current custody so readers do not mistake historical imprisonment for present detention.

Mainland China — former / released → · Hong Kong status directory → · Macao current & former →

Status and Evidence Labels

Former / released is used only where release or former-prisoner status is supported by evidence. Present status under review means the historical case is retained but current custody status still requires verification. Case classification under review should be used where even the imprisonment classification itself remains unresolved.

Special Case Indexes

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