Media Profile & Archive — Chen Hekun (陈合坤). This archive preserves the source chronology, provenance, and evidentiary limits of the reporting behind his Person Profile. It supports Chen Hekun (陈合坤).
Person profile
Chen Hekun (陈合坤) — male; Zhangjiakou, Hebei native; Catholic priest of the underground Baoding Diocese; forcibly disappeared from his Zhangjiakou home on April 29, 2024. Profile covers: the April 29, 2024 disappearance as reported by ChinaAid; the parallel disappearance of fellow Baoding priest Chi Huitian (池会田) on April 17, 2024; the wider pressure campaign against underground clergy after the 2018 Vatican–Beijing provisional agreement; and the tenchu database record’s blank charge/sentence/location fields.
Source chronology
- September 22, 2018 — background. The Vatican and Beijing sign a provisional agreement; previously excommunicated official-church bishops are recognized. ChinaAid’s May 2024 report describes how authorities then used the agreement’s ambiguity to press underground clergy to register with the state-controlled church bodies, with refusal bringing pressure, political re-education, and repeated disappearances.
- November 2, 2020 — background (ChinaAid). Multiple Baoding Diocese seminaries raided simultaneously; two priests and more than a dozen seminarians and nuns taken away by local government personnel.
- April 17, 2024 — disappearance of Chi Huitian (context). Baoding Diocese priest Chi Huitian (池会田) loses contact in Baoding; police later say he was sent back to his birthplace, Xingtai; the reason for detention is not given. Reported by ChinaAid, May 18, 2024.
- April 29, 2024 — disappearance of Chen Hekun. Chen Hekun is forcibly disappeared from his home in Zhangjiakou, Hebei. Reported by ChinaAid, May 18, 2024, in the article “天主教中国保定教区陈合坤、池会田两位神父被强迫失踪” (bylined to special correspondent Gao Zhensai).
- May 18, 2024 — ChinaAid report. Publishes the disappearance account and the wider context of pressure on the underground Baoding Diocese.
- May 19, 2024 — RFA Mandarin report on the two priests’ disappearances (cited by the tenchu database; flagged for click-verification before publishing).
- June 17, 2024 — CHRD / tenchu database record created. 陈合坤 / Chen Hekun; male; last taken away 2024.4.29; charge, sentence, release date blank; location 不详 (unknown). Cites the ChinaAid and RFA reports.
- August 31, 2026 — Rights Defense Network / 维权网, Issue 131 monthly report (Chinese and English editions). Lists 陈合坤 / “Chen Hekun” in the A–Z index of reported current-custody cases (1,638 people). He does not appear in any of the report’s by-sentence groups. The report’s 羁押未判 (held without sentence) regional list for Hebei contains the entry “陈合” alongside 池会田 — assessed as probably the same person (see caveats).
Source grading
- Issue 131 report (Chinese + English editions) — the roster source itself; primary for the roster equation and the Chinese-character resolution. High for what it lists (name in the in-custody index as of August 31, 2026); it provides no case detail beyond the listing. The “陈合” regional-list entry is a truncated form and is graded probable, not certain.
- ChinaAid, May 18, 2024 — religious-freedom NGO press; the only source with case detail (identity, diocese, date and place of disappearance, the Chi Huitian parallel, wider context). Medium for case facts; its characterizations of the authorities’ motives are the source’s framing and are not adopted as fact.
- CHRD / tenchu 中国大陆良心犯数据库 (created 2024-06-17) — structured prisoner record; primary for the dated record of the disappearance and for what is NOT known (blank charge/sentence/location). Medium-high.
- RFA Mandarin, May 19, 2024 — cited by the tenchu record as corroboration; not independently re-opened (flagged for click-verification before publishing).
Conflicts and caveats
- The Issue 131 羁押未判 Hebei list entry “陈合” is probably — not certainly — 陈合坤. The equation rests on: same surname and first given-name character; same province (Hebei); same forced-disappearance context; and the ChinaAid article’s explicit pairing of 陈合坤 with 池会田, who appears in the same regional list. The Person body does not present the equation as certain.
- No charge, sentence, court proceeding, or detention location has been publicly documented. The Person body asserts none.
- The 2020 seminary raids and the Vatican–Beijing agreement context come from ChinaAid’s framing; official or independent corroboration was not located.
- The RFA Mandarin report was not re-opened by the researcher; its URL is carried from the tenchu record and flagged for click-verification before publishing.
Evidentiary limits
No court judgments, police records, or official Chinese government statements were located. Primary evidence is one NGO press report (ChinaAid, May 2024), the CHRD/tenchu structured record (June 2024), and the Issue 131 roster (August 2026). No update on Chen’s whereabouts after May 2024 was located; the August 2026 roster’s continued listing is the latest dated signal.