Wang Jing
Wang Jing is an independent journalist who, amongst other reporting, has contributed articles to 64Tianwang, an independent human rights website operating in mainland China. The human rights defender has reported on a number of human rights-related issues in China, and has paid special attention to the plight of petitioners in the country. Petitioners are those who petition higher authorities for redress of local grievances after local authorities have ignored their requests for justice. They are often met with violence, illegal detentions and forced to return to their homes.
According to family members, Wang Jing suffers from poor health and has a brain tumour.
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.
