Chinese Human Rights Activist Dies in Xinjiang Prison Months Before Scheduled Release

A Chinese human rights activist who was sentenced to three years for helping farmers challenge regime authorities died in prison in September, just months before his scheduled release, according to his family and human rights groups.

Shi Tingfu, 67, died at about 5 p.m. on Sept. 22 after what prison authorities described to his family as a heart attack, according to the Washington-based nonprofit group Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD).

He was being held at Shahe Prison in Wensu County in the China-occupied Xinjiang region, also known as East Turkistan by Uyghur pro-independence activists.

Shi’s son, Shi Jing, received a telephone call from the prison that evening informing him of his father’s death and saying that the body had been taken to a funeral home, according to the CHRD.

The family has questioned the sudden death. Shi Jing had visited his father not long before his death and said he appeared to be in good condition and had not complained of feeling unwell. The family also said Shi had no known history of heart disease.

According to the CHRD, Shi Jing subsequently traveled to the prison to seek information about his father’s death and deal with funeral arrangements.

The Epoch Times was unable to reach Shi Jing for comment.

CHRD said it could not confirm whether inadequate medical care contributed to Shi’s death but called on the Chinese regime to disclose his medical records and details of the treatment he received in prison and to allow an independent investigation into the circumstances of his death.

The group’s call came shortly after it published a report examining allegations of torture and mistreatment of prisoners of conscience in China. The report, “Swept Under the Rug: Systemic Failures to End Torture in the People’s Republic of China,” examined 209 alleged torture cases between 2016 and 2025.

According to CHRD, 35 percent of the cases involved allegations that detainees were deprived of adequate medical care, making it the most frequently reported form of torture in the cases studied. Sixteen people died in detention in circumstances that the report linked to inadequate medical care.

CHRD did not say that Shi’s death was one of those cases.

Shi’s imprisonment was scheduled to end in January 2027. He was convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a broadly worded offense that the Chinese regime has frequently used against political dissidents and critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Detained Over Farmers’ Grievances

The police in Xinjiang detained Shi in January 2024 after he helped farmers in the Aksu area seeking redress for grievances involving the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), according to CHRD.

The XPCC is one of the CCP’s regional paramilitary groups that is sanctioned by the United States over serious human rights violations such as forced labor. 

Shi was accused of providing information about the farmers’ grievances to overseas media outlets, including The Epoch Times and NTD. The regime also accused him of “spreading and promoting terrorism and extremism,” a move that restricted his timely access to legal assistance, according to CHRD.

He was ultimately convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and sentenced to three years in prison. He was later transferred to Shahe Prison in Wensu County, where he died.

CHRD said Shi had a history of activism, including efforts to support persecuted human rights lawyers and families of political prisoners. He had also been repeatedly detained by the regime and subjected to police brutality, arbitrary detention, and torture.

The circumstances surrounding his death remain unclear. The Chinese regime has not publicly released detailed medical information about the final hours of Shi’s life.

Li Xi contributed to this report.