Beijing civilian publisher Kim Chan was sentenced to three years and six months: the latest report of the case indicates that he is still in custody at Haidian Detention Centre.

On 23 September, the Movement released a recent case of the painting of the Chan, stating that the Beijing civilian publisher is still being held in the Haidian prison in Beijing city. According to public information, in March this year, the Haidian District Court sentenced him to three years and six months' imprisonment for “illegal business” and calculated his sentence to 20 May 2027.

From cultural entrepreneurs to criminal defendants

Born in 1962 in Hubei, she was a teacher at her early years and has been working in Beijing for a long time in the compilation and publication of folk family history, family history and personal biography. The official media, such as the Observatorio, have in the past reported on their “genre-studies” entrepreneurship project; In 2015, then-Premier Li Keqiang visited Chinaguang Business Street, where he also operated.

According to RDC, the painting was removed on 21 November 2023 and then entered criminal proceedings on suspicion of “illegal operation”. The mainland Chinese prisoners of conscience database recorded that their case had begun in March 2025 and that sentence was handed down on 24 March of this year, with another accused, Wu Winter, sentenced to two years and six months.

The relationship between the allegations and the publication activities still lacks a complete public judgement

According to DEFAD, the case was related to the long-standing private publishing activities of Chan, and mentioned that his company had been investigated by the cultural and public security authorities for book publishing, storage and mailing. The Chinese mainland prisoners of conscience database also recorded their charges as “illegal business offences”.

However, the complete court judgement is not available in the public domain, which prevents independent external verification of the specific publication listed in the indictment, the amount of the business, the rules of evidence and the manner in which the court has determined that the business was illicit. The political evaluation of the nature of the case is mainly from human rights organizations and supporters and is not replaced by a factual determination by a court of law.

The period of detention is included in the sentence

Public records show that the sentence of the gin-tang was calculated from 21 November

1. This means that he is in custody for a long time before his sentence is handed down. The latest information from the Rights Movement states that he is still in the Haydian prison rather than having been transferred to prison; This information has not yet been confirmed by the Beijing judiciary through public channels.

The next step in the case is whether the judgement is public, whether the appeal or execution stage has been reached and whether the place of detention has changed. For criminal cases involving the intersection of publishing and expression, a complete legal instrument is a key material in judging the application of the “illegal operation” offence to the border.