Chengdu police arrested Li Zhaoxiu, a volunteer journalist for the independent human rights news website 64 Tianwang, in September 2017. In August 2019, she was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking troubles.”
Police in the Shuangliu District of Chengdu, Sichuan province, arrested Li while she was waiting to be transferred to a hospital for liver surgery on September 17, 2017, according to news reports.
Li had been a vocal advocate for 64 Tianwang founder Huang Qi’s release. According to Radio Free Asia, Li was accompanied by Huang’s mother Pu Wenqing at the hospital when police detained her.
In August 2019, Li was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, according to 64 Tianwang volunteer Pu Fei, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app in September 2019. As of late 2019, Li was being held at Chengdu’s Shuangliu District Detention Center, Pu said.
CPJ was unable to determine whether she had received any medical treatment at the detention facility. In late 2019, CPJ called the Chengdu Public Security Bureau’s Jiaolong Branch, but a representative refused to disclose any information on Li’s case.