(Chengdu, Sichuan — February 18, 2026) Human rights defender Chen Yunfei (陈云飞), who served an eight-year prison term and was released last year, has once again fallen into a life-threatening situation. In response to a violent assault that occurred in early January this year, Chen Yunfei and his legal representative, lawyer Lu Siwei (卢思位), recently went to the Zhujiang Road Police Station in Chengdu to lodge a formal protest and engage the police. Lawyer Lu Siwei emphasized that this was not a simple public security incident, but a premeditated criminal offense, and demanded that the police severely punish the perpetrators and uncover who orchestrated the attack behind the scenes.
The incident occurred at around 9:00 a.m. on January 8, 2026. At the time, Chen Yunfei, a member of Early Rain Covenant Church (秋雨圣约教会), was walking within his residential complex when he was suddenly attacked face-to-face by an unidentified man. According to Chen Yunfei, the assailant acted with extreme arrogance during the assault and issued an explicit political warning, ordering him “not to post on X.” Throughout the attack, Chen Yunfei remained restrained and did not fight back.
As a result of the assault, Chen Yunfei sustained serious facial injuries with multiple bleeding wounds and required four stitches after being taken to the hospital. Although the initial injury assessment classified the harm as “minor injury,” Chen Yunfei strongly objected, believing that the severity of his injuries was underestimated, and has lawfully applied for a re-evaluation. During the assault, the attacker caused Chen Yunfei to suffer an orbital bone fracture, blurred vision in the right eye with blind spots and pain, numbness from the tip of the right nose to the eye, and optic nerve atrophy.
In his engagement with the police, lawyer Lu Siwei clearly raised two legal demands: first, that the case bears the clear nature of violent intimidation and constitutes a criminal offense, requiring the police to take compulsory measures against the suspect immediately; second, given the assailant’s verbal warning and Chen Yunfei’s long-standing circumstances, there is evidently someone directing the attack from behind the scenes, and the truth must be thoroughly uncovered.
Lawyer Lu Siwei emphasized that even if the final injury assessment does not reach the threshold of “second-degree minor injury,” the conduct, based on the circumstances at the scene, fully meets the aggravated elements of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and must incur criminal liability. He further warned the handling officers that any act of shielding or condoning the perpetrators could constitute abuse of power, bending the law for personal gain, or dereliction of duty, and would inevitably entail corresponding legal consequences.
Now nearing sixty years of age, Chen Yunfei’s experience is deeply distressing. He has been imprisoned twice, serving a cumulative total of eight years, and was not released until March 25, 2025. However, regaining freedom did not bring peace. Since his release, Chen Yunfei has lived under tight surveillance and has been repeatedly subjected to forced summons. On August 20 last year, he again faced pressure from authorities to be forcibly relocated, and the violent incident at the beginning of this year has been widely interpreted as an extreme escalation of such coercive relocation tactics.
At present, Chen Yunfei has properly preserved relevant evidence and is seeking justice through legal channels together with his lawyer.
Gao Zhensai, Special Correspondent for ChinaAid
