He Fangmei (何方美) is a vaccine-safety and human-rights advocate from Huixian, Henan Province. After her young daughter was left severely disabled following vaccinations in 2018, she became an advocate for vaccine-injured families and co-founded “Home for Vaccine Babies” (疫苗宝宝之家). UN Special Procedures and the Chinese government’s reply to the UN document a five-year-six-month prison sentence imposed in October 2024.
Advocacy background
A 2023 joint open letter reported that He’s daughter became seriously ill after vaccinations in 2018 and was later diagnosed with viral myelitis that left her limbs paralyzed and atrophied. He subsequently petitioned with other parents of vaccine-injured children. During the March 2019 “Two Sessions,” she was detained after joining other parents in Beijing; UN Special Procedures reported 15 days of administrative detention followed by criminal detention on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” She was released without charge in January 2020 after prosecutors dropped that case.
2020–2025 proceedings
On October 9, 2020, He protested at the Huixian government building while accompanied by her daughter and was taken away. Human-rights reporting states that He and her children were later held under residential surveillance at Xinxiang Gongji Psychiatric Hospital. The Chinese government’s reply to the UN says compulsory residential surveillance began on October 7, 2021.
The PRC government states that He was formally arrested on March 23, 2022 on charges of bigamy and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” UN mandate holders reported concerns about access to counsel and the handling of the proceedings, while the Chinese government stated that the hearing and judgments were public and that her procedural rights were protected.
On October 23, 2024, the Huixian court sentenced He to one year and nine months for bigamy and four years for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” combined into a five-year-six-month term. The Chinese government’s reply states that the Xinxiang Municipal Intermediate People’s Court rejected her appeal and upheld the judgment on January 7, 2025.
Children and unresolved issues
UN mandate holders reported that He’s two young daughters were moved from the psychiatric hospital to an unknown location around April 2024 and that their whereabouts were unknown when the January 2025 communication was written. The Chinese government’s reply states that the children’s education and medical rights were protected and that caregivers were arranged. Their current whereabouts are not established by the sources reviewed here.
Status and evidence limits
Earlier roster material described He as pretrial or unsentenced. That classification is superseded by the later UN communication and the PRC government’s own reply confirming the October 2024 conviction and January 2025 appeal decision. A January 1, 2027 sentence-end date appears in information reported to the UN, not in the Chinese government’s reply, and is therefore not presented as an official release date. Her current serving facility is unknown.
Media Archive: He Fangmei / 何方美 — Media Archive.