He Chaozheng （何朝正）, born April 9, 1969, is a rights activist from Xiema, Beibei District, Chongqing. His case is linked to a long-running land dispute: beginning in 2012 he petitioned against the requisition of farmland and homes in Xiema by the town government, which he and other petitioners said was carried out with unkept written promises and no resettlement, leaving more than 1,000 mu of land idle. Over years of petitioning, he was repeatedly detained and beaten, rights groups report. These are the petitioners’ and rights groups’ accounts; they have not been independently adjudicated.
He was first held in a criminal case in late 2016, formally arrested in March 2017, tried in March 2018, and sentenced on July 31, 2018, by the Beibei District People’s Court to one year and six months for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” He was released on August 23, 2018, having served the term.
On June 28, 2024, He Chaozheng was again criminally detained by Beibei police on the same charge. Rights monitors say the detention followed a May 20, 2024 gathering at which he and other Chongqing residents celebrated Lai Ching-te’s inauguration as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan), a video of which circulated online. This reported link between the video and the detention is per rights monitors’ reporting, not an official statement. He was formally arrested on August 2, 2024. His case went to trial on November 12, 2025, at the Yubei District People’s Court; as of the latest available information, no verdict has been reported. He is held at the Beibei District Detention Center in Chongqing.
Current status
He is currently detained and awaiting a verdict — no sentence has been reported for the current case. No release date or current whereabouts beyond the Beibei District Detention Center (dated 2024–2025) should be asserted; no official judgment for either case is publicly available.
Sources: Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) Prisoners of Conscience database, 何朝正 entry (entered August 17, 2024; updated through the November 2025 trial); China Political Prisoner Concern, CPPC00653 case file; 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), July 2, 2024; 维权网 monthly report, Issue 131 (August 31, 2026). See the Media Archive for full source detail, per-item verification, and evidentiary limits. A Radio Free Asia (Mandarin) report on the 2018 trial was not reachable in the verification pass and is not cited as verified.