Chen Qiang (陈强, born October 10, 1985) is a consumer-rights defender from Nanyang City, Henan Province, serving a 12-year sentence on an extortion charge after a prosecution that fellow rights advocates describe as retaliation for his years of consumer-rights and anti-corruption lawsuits. He was arrested on October 19, 2018, sentenced to 12 years by the Nanyang Wolong District Court on September 6, 2019, and the sentence was upheld on appeal on April 10, 2020. He is held at Nanyang Prison in Henan, with his term running to October 18, 2030.
Chen was a “civilian professional anti-fake-fighter” (民间职业打假人) and rights defender from Zhaozhuang Village, Yingzhuang Township, Wolong District, Nanyang. Beginning in the early 2010s he brought a series of administrative lawsuits over consumer protection and official misconduct: in 2013 he sued the Nanyang municipal government after it refused to accept his administrative reconsideration application — and won; in 2015 he sued the Nanyang Price Administration Office and the Nanyang branch of China Mobile for failing to act on consumer complaints; in 2016, together with fellow rights defenders Wang Qing, Wang Jucai, and Han Meng, he complained to market regulators about a Nanyang café he said was illegally operated with official backing, and the shop was fined.
On October 19, 2018, Wolong District police seized Chen and three fellow rights defenders, detaining them at the Nanyang detention center on suspicion of 敲诈勒索 (extortion). The procuratorate argued that their pattern of buying allegedly counterfeit or falsely advertised goods and then demanding punitive compensation through complaints constituted extortion by threat. In September 2019 all four were convicted; Chen received the 12-year term and the others received terms from 8 to 14 years. Chen appealed; the Nanyang Intermediate Court upheld the sentence on April 10, 2020. Rights-defense sources, including the Chinese Political Prisoner Concern database, characterize the 12-year term as a wrongful conviction (枉法重判) aimed at silencing his anti-corruption activism — a characterization that is attributed to those sources, not asserted as this site’s finding.
The August 31, 2026 rights-defense roster (Rights Defense Network / 维权网, Issue 131) lists 陈强 among people serving 12-year sentences who are reported in custody — consistent with this case. (See the Media Profile & Archive for the identity analysis behind the roster equation.)
Sources: Rights Defense Network / 维权网 Issue 131 monthly report, August 31, 2026 (Chinese and English editions); Chinese Political Prisoner Concern (CPPC) profile no. 01009, May 2021 (cppc1989.blogspot.com), with criminal-judgment and police-announcement images; CHRD / tenchu 中国大陆良心犯数据库 record for 陈强; ChinaAid and 民生观察 (msguancha) reports cited by tenchu — URLs carried for click-verification. See the Media Profile & Archive for full source detail, provenance, and evidentiary limits.
View the Chen Qiang Media Profile & Archive for the full source chronology, identity analysis, and evidentiary limits.