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The Chinese communist regime led the world in the number of journalists imprisoned last year.
In its latest annual
report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that the Chinese regime locked up 50 reporters last year—an all-time high among the countries that the group tracks—earning it the title of “the world’s worst jailer of journalists” for the third consecutive year.
Across the world, at least 330 journalists were jailed as of December 2025, down slightly from the record high of 384 reported the previous year.
Among the targeted Chinese journalists highlighted in the report, released on Jan. 21, was Dong Yuyu, a former editor and columnist for a state-run newspaper, who
received a seven-year jail term in November 2024 after being convicted of espionage charges.
The group said Dong’s case highlighted a growing trend in which the Chinese authorities use anti-state charges to punish journalists.
At least 34 journalists were jailed last year for vaguely worded and broad charges, including “subversion of state power” and “inciting subversion,” according to data gathered by the CPJ.
In November 2025, the Beijing High Court
dismissed an appeal to overturn the harsh sentence against Dong, drawing condemnation from members of Congress in Washington. The U.S. State Department
cited Dong’s case in the latest international human rights report, while the European Union’s diplomatic arm also
called for Dong’s release last December.
Dong has been detained since February 2022 while having lunch with a Japanese diplomat. His family has voiced concerns about the 63-year-old man’s health in Chinese prisons, where the rights advocacy group said conditions are known for being “harsh and life-threatening.”
According to the report, seven of the 50 arrested Chinese journalists are imprisoned in Hong Kong. The group highlighted the case of Jimmy Lai, the founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.
Lai, an outspoken critic of China’s communist regime, faces up to life imprisonment after being
convicted in December 2025 of two counts of conspiring with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law. He was also found guilty of a count of conspiracy to publish seditious material under a colonial-era sedition law.
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A handout photo from Apple Daily showing Hong Kong business tycoon Jimmy Lai led by police officers during a search at the headquarters of Apple Daily after Lai was arrested at his home in Hong Kong on Aug. 10, 2020. Handout/Getty Images
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As Lai awaits the final sentence following a
mitigation hearing earlier this month, his family has appealed to the international community for urgent help,
fearing that the 78-year-old former publisher could die in a Hong Kong prison.
The CPJ report was released on the same day that European Union lawmakers pushed to impose sanctions on Hong Kong officials responsible for eliminating the city’s freedom and human rights.
Speaking in the European Parliament on Jan. 21, Slovak lawmaker Miriam Lexmann condemned the trial of Lai as a sham based on fabricated offenses.
“This is the real face of the brutal Chinese Communist Party,” Lexmann
said.
Calling Lai one of Hong Kong’s strongest democracy advocates, Lexmann urged her colleagues to issue “a strong statement demanding his liberation.”
“I urge the European Commission to initiate the suspension of Hong Kong’s special status under the WTO, and withdraw the credentials of the Hong Kong economic and trade office in Brussels,” she said.
German member of the European Parliament (MEP) Engin Eroglu also voiced support for these measures, saying that real actions are needed to respond to the conviction of Lai, a British citizen, for simply expressing his thoughts.
“Take what we have voted on and transfer it to the Council,” Eroglu
said via translator. “We don’t just want words, we want actions and sanctions.”
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Hours later, the European Parliament adopted the resolution condemning “in the strongest terms” the arbitrary prosecution of Lai, with a
total of 503 lawmakers voting in favor and nine against.
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While the latest resolution is non-binding, MEPs want to put additional pressure on the bloc’s executive branch after a 2024
resolution failed to translate into concrete action.
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The
resolution called on the bloc’s executive branch, the European Parliament, to impose sanctions on chief executive John Lee and all Hong Kong officials responsible for the suppression of the city’s freedom. It also called for member states to suspend extradition treaties with China and Hong Kong, and revoke Hong Kong’s special trade status.
If Lai were given life imprisonment, the EU should consider it “unacceptable” and “bringing severe consequences” for relations between the bloc and Beijing, according to the resolution.
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U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) (C) addresses MPs in the House of Commons alongside UK Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall (L), and UK Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle (R) in London, on Jan. 20, 2026. Jordan Pettitt - WPA Pool/Getty Images
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For the past five years, Lai, who has diabetes, has been kept in solitary confinement and has been deprived of sunlight and fresh air, according to his son, Sebastien Lai.
Earlier this week, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also raised the plight of Lai in his speech at the UK Parliament.
“History … teaches us that the best solution to the problem of free speech is always more speech. And those being unjustly persecuted for exercising those freedoms, such as Jimmy Lai, the British national being held in Hong Kong, must be defended,” Johnson
said.
“And the [United States] stands with the UK as you work to free him.”
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