Yin Weihe
Yin Weihe is a human rights defender who has called on the government to introduce political reforms, campaigned against corruption and attempted to draw attention to the government crackdown and killing of protesters in 1989. Yin Weihe has been detained a number of times because of his human rights work.
Human rights defenders in China work in an extremely hostile environment and under President Xi Jinping they have seen the space in which to operate further restricted. Chinese HRDs are active in many spheres, and they include lawyers, journalists, academics, transparency campaigners, housing and land rights activists, bloggers, writers, HIV/AIDS activists and those promoting the rights of ethnic minorities. Regardless of the issues they work on, HRDs who highlight abuses, challenge the authorities or network to support detained colleagues all face reprisals from the government. These range from almost daily harassment and intimidation of family members to detentions, disappearances, torture and imprisonment.
