Reports

Tiger Chairs and Cell Bosses

Police Torture of Criminal Suspects in China

This 145-page report is based on Human Rights Watch analysis of hundreds of newly published court verdicts from across the country and interviews with 48 recent detainees, family members, lawyers, and former officials. Human Rights Watch found that police torture and ill-treatment of suspects in pretrial detention in China remains a serious problem.

A “tiger chair” specially designed to restrain detainees. Former detainees say that police often strap them into these metal chairs for hours and even days, depriving detainees of sleep, and immobilizing them until their legs and buttocks were swollen.
A man holds a flower and the message "Humanity for All" in front of a line of soldiers

World Report 2026

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