Ji Xiaolong was sentenced on Friday, October 27 to four years and six months in prison by a Shanghai court for picking quarrels and provoking trouble. He disclosed the truth about Shanghai’s lockdown during last year’s COVID-19 pandemic. He demanded the Chinese government relax the excessive lockdown measures and for those responsible to be held accountable for their policy making.

“All the news I received today has not been good, sentenced to four and a half years, it will take more than three years to get out of prison. (They) have not given him a haircut yet, I do not know what these officials are plotting,” Ji Xiaolong’s sister said in response.

In 2018, Ji criticized China’s “vaccine scandal.” Amidst public outrage, many victims’ families demanded accountability and protection of rights. Ji Xiaolong initiated the “Toilet Revolution,” subsequently he was arrested by the police and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble. He was released in February 2022. In the following months from April to June, Shanghai implemented stringent lockdown measures due to the outbreak of COVID-19, which resulted in the endangerment of people’s livelihoods. Ji spoke out on the internet, asking the Shanghai government to sympathize with the people, relax their excessive control, and stop campaign-style covid prevention measures.

In August 2022, Ji was reprimanded when he issued a real-name petition to Li Qiang, the party secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee at the time, and now China’s Premier, demanding accountability for the city’s closure. He was taken away from his home by the Shanghai police on August 31, and was criminally detained by the Pudong New Area Police, where he was held without timely and effective care for his serious dental condition. His case was once returned for supplementary investigation, but in the end he was charged in March of this year.

Ji Xiaolong is currently being held at the Pudong New Area Detention Center in Shanghai, where he will serve his sentence until February 28, 2027.