Wang Shurong’s six-year jail sentence on a charge of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” was upheld on 4 July. Yang Xiuqiong was arrested on 23 June and, like Huang, has been charged with “providing state secrets.” The authorities are meanwhile continuing to persecute other journalists who write for 64 tianwang. Huang was taken into custody on 28 November and was formally arrested on 16 December. His latest spell in detention began in late October 2016, when the police abducted him at the same time as Liu Feiyue, the founder of the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website. After the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province, which left 70,000 dead and 18,000 missing, he published a much quoted article alleging that the shoddy construction of schools contributed to the toll. The authorities began hounding him because of what he wrote about the crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests. His current spell in detention, which began last October, is his third. His health has been destroyed by mistreatment and violence during a total of eight years in prison. Huang Qi won the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Prize in the Cyber-Dissident category in 2004. His lawyers have repeatedly but unsuccessfully requested his release for medical reasons. Aged 54, he has a kidney ailment that requires a great deal of treatment and frequent hospitalization. On 11 July, two days before Liu Xiaobo’s death in detention, Huang’s mother posted a video calling for her son’s release on humanitarian grounds.
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