Mao Hengfeng (毛恒凤) is a women’s-rights and human-rights activist from Shanghai and a long-time petitioner. Rights Defense Network Issue 131 lists her in the Shanghai group of people reported detained without a sentence as of August 31, 2026.
Background and earlier detention
Human-rights organizations have documented Mao’s petitioning since the late 1980s over family-planning enforcement, dismissal from employment, and later rights abuses. Amnesty International, Human Rights in China and FIDH/OMCT documented repeated detention, reeducation-through-labor terms and imprisonment between 2004 and 2013. “Prisoner of conscience” is Amnesty International’s designation and is not presented here as an official legal status.
2024 detention
The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China reported that Mao was detained in Shanghai on April 24, 2024 near the hotel where the visiting U.S. Secretary of State was staying. The CECC, citing a Rights Defense Network account, reported strip-searching, shackling, prolonged questioning in a metal chair and subsequent confinement at a guesthouse used for extralegal detention. Those details remain source-attributed.
2026 status
Rights Defense Network Issue 131, dated August 31, 2026, lists 毛恒凤 in the Shanghai group of people reported detained without trial. The roster does not give a charge, arrest date or detention facility for the current custody episode. This profile therefore does not infer any of those details or any status after August 31, 2026.
Media Profile & Archive: Mao Hengfeng / 毛恒凤 — Media Archive.