September 17, 2026 — Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) has published a 53-page report examining 209 alleged cases of torture and ill-treatment involving prisoners of conscience between 2016 and 2025, together with interviews with 25 human rights defenders, relatives and lawyers.
CHRD says one in five cases it reviewed involved allegations of beatings, while 35 percent described deprivation of adequate medical care. The organization reported 16 deaths in detention that it said were apparently connected to denial of medical care.
According to CHRD, it found references to courts investigating torture allegations in only two of the 209 cases, involving rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi and journalist Huang Xueqin. CHRD said it found no evidence that an official was prosecuted or disciplined for torturing a prisoner of conscience in the cases it examined.
The findings are allegations and research conclusions reported by CHRD, not independent findings by Free China Movement. CHRD called for an independent mechanism to investigate torture complaints and for greater scrutiny through United Nations human-rights mechanisms.