Qiao Xinxin (乔鑫鑫), legal name Yang Zewei (杨泽伟), is a Chinese journalist and anti-censorship activist serving a five-year prison sentence in Hunan for “inciting subversion of state power,” according to the Dui Hua Foundation and other human-rights sources.
Yang worked as an independent journalist before leaving China and later lived in Vientiane, Laos. In March 2023 he helped launch the Ban the Great Firewall movement (BanGFW / 拆墙运动), which promoted tools and information for circumventing China’s internet censorship system.
On May 31, 2023, he disappeared from his home in Vientiane. Human-rights organizations later described the case as a cross-border seizure involving Chinese and Lao authorities. He subsequently resurfaced in detention in Hunan. Dui Hua reports that the Hengyang People’s Procuratorate indicted him in July 2023 for “inciting subversion of state power,” and that he later received a five-year sentence in a closed-door trial. Dui Hua lists an expected sentence expiry in June 2028.
Evidence limits
No public court judgment was located. The characterization of the Laos incident as a joint or cross-border policing operation is source-attributed. Reports about later prison placement or mistreatment are not treated here as independently established facts.
Sources include the Dui Hua Foundation, an Amnesty International/CIVICUS/FORUM-ASIA submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review of Laos, a joint NGO statement hosted by the European Criminal Bar Association, and the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
Media Profile & Archive: Qiao Xinxin / 乔鑫鑫 — Media Profile & Archive.