Xu Jian (许健)
Xu Jian (许健) is a rights-defense petitioner (维权人士) from Nantong, Jiangsu Province, who was sentenced to two years in prison on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” (寻衅滋事罪) in June 2024, according to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) prisoners-of-conscience database. The Rights Defense Network’s monthly report on mainland political prisoners, dated August 31, 2026, lists Xu Jian among persons in custody with a two-year sentence.
The CHRD record describes Xu Jian’s case as intertwined with that of his wife, Zhu Peijuan (朱培娟). It states that in August 2019, Zhu’s uncle died in an accident and the family was unable to lay him to rest, leading Zhu to begin petitioning for an explanation. On October 10, 2021, while traveling to Beijing to petition, Zhu was intercepted and beaten, suffering a fractured ankle and other injuries later assessed as a first-degree minor injury, the record says. On December 25, 2023, Zhu sent a distress message in a WeChat group saying she had been placed on an online wanted list for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”; police from Langfang and Nantong broke into her home and took her to the Haimen District Public Security Bureau case center, according to the CHRD account. The following morning Zhu sent what the record describes as her last message; that afternoon, Xu Jian posted an emergency appeal in the WeChat group after encountering his wife at the Haimen District People’s Hospital, where she told him she had been criminally detained for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” and was to undergo a medical examination before being sent to the Nantong Detention Center.
The record further states that on December 30, 2023, Xu Jian received a notice from the Qidong City Public Security Bureau placing his wife under residential surveillance at a designated location. On January 3, 2024, Xu Jian was himself taken away by police; on the morning of January 4 he telephoned his family to say he had been placed in a detention facility the previous evening, where a statement was taken from him that, he said, focused mainly on his WeChat and Weibo posts. A lawyer was retained to visit him, but the Tongzhou District Detention Center refused the visit without the approval of the case-handling authorities, the record says. Xu Jian was given an eight-day administrative detention by the Haimen District Public Security Bureau; when it expired on January 11, 2024, he was not released, and his family received a criminal-detention notice. After nearly six months in custody, his case was tried at the Haimen District Court, and he was sentenced to two years in prison in June 2024.
The CHRD record gives his projected release date as January 10, 2026, and its biography states he was released on completion of his sentence that day. However, the Rights Defense Network’s August 31, 2026 monthly report still lists Xu Jian as in custody. These two sources conflict on his current status, and his present whereabouts are not independently confirmed.
Media archive and source record: Xu Jian (许健) — Media Archive