Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Today the world’s eyes are on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States and on what he and Trump will announce this evening regarding the outcome of talks on highly sensitive issues, like the Sino-US trade war, the race for supremacy in artificial intelligence, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and the Taiwan question.
As with previous meetings, the topic of human rights in China remains taboo, with the notable exception of the symbolic release of Rev Ezra Jin, the pastor of Zion Church, which occurred a few weeks after Trump’s last visit to Beijing.
For this very reason, it is worth highlighting the reported death of the jailed dissident, made public yesterday evening by the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), a coalition of coalition of Chinese and international human rights NGOs.
According to sources in China, on Tuesday, Shahe prison authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region informed Shi Tingfu’s family of his death. The 67-year-old political prisoner was serving a three-year sentence for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble", a standard charge Chinese authorities frequently use to suppress all forms of dissent.
Prison authorities stated that his death was caused by a heart attack.
Shi’s death came just a week after the presentation of the report Swept Under the Rug, in which the CHRD highlights how the denial of adequate medical care is a common form of torture practised in Chinese prisons.
Based on the examination of 209 cases between 2016 and 2025, the report found that 35 per cent of the former detainees interviewed described how they were denied proper medical care. In at least 16 cases, people died in custody for this reason, with no evidence that anyone was prosecuted or punished for torturing a prisoner of conscience.
According to the group’s press release, “While CHRD cannot definitively confirm that Shi died as a result of inadequate medical care, prison authorities should immediately give Shi’s family full details of the circumstances of his death, including his medical records, information about any treatment he requested and received during his imprisonment, and access to his body. Authorities should allow an independent investigation and prosecute anyone credibly implicated in Shi’s death.”
Shi Tingfu, a former electronics factory worker in Nanjing, backed the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
After he was laid off in the 1990s, he became an outspoken advocate for freedom and democracy online, organising street protests to mark the anniversaries of the massacre. He also drew attention to official corruption, and showed support for democracy in Taiwan.
He also joined campaigns to free persecuted human rights lawyers and support the families of political prisoners, leading to his repeated arrest.
His final stint behind bars began in January 2024, when police in Xinjiang took him into custody for passing information to foreign media about fruit farmers in the city of Aral who were protesting against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a paramilitary organisation that oversees agricultural activities.
The authorities, who denied Shi timely access to legal counsel, accused him of "spreading and promoting terrorism and extremism."
Shi suffered from multiple health issues, including hypertension, pneumonia, and asthma.
When his lawyer met him at the Aral City Detention Centre in Aksu on 11 April 2024, he noted that Shi’s already precarious health had further deteriorated while in prison.
His family stated that during a recent visit, he appeared to be in good health and made no mention of any physical ailments, which raises questions about the circumstances of his sudden death.
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