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Qin Yongmin: Veteran Democracy Advocate Serving a 13-Year Sentence

Current status
Current custody · Region: Mainland China · Last verified: 2026-09-16

Languages: English · 简体中文 · 繁體中文 · Français · Deutsch · Español

Research record. Last verified September 1, 2026. Facts, attributed statements, and unresolved claims are distinguished below. No photograph is reproduced because reuse rights have not been established.

Qin Yongmin is a writer, human-rights advocate, Democracy Wall-era activist, co-founder of the China Democracy Party, and organizer associated with China Human Rights Watch and the Rose Group. His peaceful public work has included advocacy for constitutional democracy, freedom of association, political-prisoner releases, and civil-society participation in United Nations human-rights mechanisms.

Mainland Chinese Communist authorities detained him in 2015. In July 2018, the Wuhan Intermediate People’s Court convicted him of “subversion of state power” and sentenced him to 13 years in prison followed by three years’ deprivation of political rights. The Hubei Higher People’s Court rejected his appeal and upheld the judgment on September 27, 2018.

The precise first-instance judgment date differs across authoritative records: a 2025 government response says July 11, 2018, while a February 2025 UN communication gives July 10. The public profile therefore uses “July 2018” and does not resolve the discrepancy without the original judgment.

International finding

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in Opinion No. 20/2019 that Qin Yongmin’s detention was arbitrary and fell within Categories I, II, III, and V. UN experts also raised concerns about prolonged pretrial detention, access to counsel, and medical care.

Current status and location

A 2025 government response to UN special procedures stated that Qin Yongmin was serving his sentence in Guanghua Prison in Hubei Province. A February 28, 2025 UN communication independently identified Guanghua Prison in Qianjiang City, Hubei Province. PEN America’s current case page also lists him as incarcerated. No release has been verified, and this profile does not infer an exact future release date.

Health and access

The government’s 2025 response says he receives daily medication for high blood pressure, undergoes a comprehensive examination every six months, and has met family members and lawyers more than 20 times. These are attributed government claims, not an independent medical assessment. UN experts stated in February 2025 that information previously requested about access to adequate medical care and counsel had not been provided.

Media archive baseline

  • Beijing Spring, 1998–1999: four controlled Chinese historical records.
  • Independent expansion: Human Rights Watch 2000/2018, RFA Mandarin/Cantonese 2018, and RSF French 2019, bringing the dedicated the research archive media master to eleven controlled records. Additional controlled rows include Amnesty International 1994 and a 2026 Chinese rights-network custody-monitoring item; the latter is a secondary status layer only.

Archive-control note: SOURCE FOUND = YES and REGISTER SAVED = YES for all eleven current media-master rows. These states do not mean that an original/archive copy has been saved: ORIGINAL / ARCHIVE COPY = NO and SCANNED INTAKE = NO for the current rows. Primary judgments, prison records, the Peace Charter original, and China Democracy Party founding records remain acquisition targets.

Why this case matters

Qin Yongmin’s case spans the Democracy Wall period, independent publishing, opposition-party organization, peaceful constitutional advocacy, human-rights documentation, and engagement with international human-rights mechanisms.

Free China Movement position

The Free China Movement calls for Qin Yongmin’s immediate and unconditional release; independent access to counsel, family, and medical care; restoration of his civil and political rights; and accountability for arbitrary detention and other violations of internationally protected rights.

Sources

Media profile & archive: Qin Yongmin / 秦永敏 — Media Profile & Archive.

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