China: Veteran Journalist Charged with ‘Picking Quarrels’

(New York) – Chinese authorities have formally charged well-known journalist and creator Du Bin () with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” Human Rights Watch stated at the moment. 

Police in Beijing took Du, 53, into custody on October 15, 2025, a day earlier than he had scheduled journey to Japan, his sister stated in an announcement. He has since been held at Beijing’s Shunyi Detention Center. He faces as much as 5 years in jail underneath article 293 of China’s Criminal Law, and as much as 10 years if discovered to be “seriously disrupting public order.” 

“The baseless charges against a prominent journalist like Du Bin highlight the growing intolerance for dissent under Xi Jinping’s leadership,” stated Yalkun Uluyol, China researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should free Du Bin immediately and unconditionally and drop all charges.”

Du’s arrest seems to be associated to his books, which the authorities allege “attack national leaders.” However, Du’s household have stated that they’ve but to obtain discover of a proper prison arrest or cost, in obvious violation of the notification necessities in China’s Criminal Procedure Law. 

This is the third time that the authorities have detained Du, however the first time he has been formally charged ().

The authorities detained Du for a month in 2013 for releasing a documentary, “Above the Ghosts’ Head: The Women of Masanjia Labour Camp,” and a ebook, “The Tiananmen Massacre.” He was detained for a month in 2020 for allegedly “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” due to his books important of the Chinese authorities. Du’s books, all revealed overseas, embody the “Changchun Hunger Siege,” a historic account revealed in 2017 concerning the deaths from hunger of a whole lot of hundreds of civilians in Changchun in the course of the Chinese civil conflict.

Du beforehand labored as a journalist and photographer for numerous home and worldwide shops, together with the New York Times, Beijing Youth Daily (), and Workers’ Daily (). 

Under Xi Jinping’s management for the previous decade, the authorities have arrested and prosecuted numerous Chinese journalists in violation of their rights to freedom of expression and affiliation. Reporters Without Border has reported that 121 journalists are at present detained in China.

In November, Beijing’s High Court upheld a seven-year sentence for Dong Yuyu, 62, a journalist arrested in February 2022 on espionage fees whereas he was having lunch with a Japanese diplomat. Dong had been writing for a Chinese authorities newspaper, Guangming Daily, for 35 years earlier than his arrest.

In September, a court docket sentenced a citizen-journalist, Zhang Zhan, 42, to 4 years in jail for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.” Zhang had beforehand served 4 years in jail underneath the identical article for her reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan.

After Zhang’s second conviction, the United Nations excessive commissioner for human rights, Volker Trk, stated the crime of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble … given its broad wording and the wide scope of its potential application to those exercising their rights, including freedom of expression and association,” is “at variance with China’s international human rights obligations.”

In June 2024, a court docket in Guangzhou sentenced a feminist activist and journalist, Huang Xueqin, 37, to 5 years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power” for her writing, together with concerning the 2019 Hong Kong protests and her position within the #MeTooMovement.

In Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai, 77, a outstanding pro-democracy media tycoon and proprietor of the shuttered Apple Daily is dealing with as much as life in jail on two fabricated “foreign collusion” fees underneath Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law.

“Concerned governments should publicly raise Du Bin’s case with the Chinese government and press for his immediate and unconditional release,” Uluyol stated. “By bringing baseless charges against its critics, Beijing is merely broadcasting to the world the fragility of its rule.” 

Source: Human Rights Watch