Li Heping spoke out against the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese government and was arrested in 2015, along with 250 other human rights lawyers.

According to The Christian Post, Bob Fu of China Aid, which monitors Christian persecution in China and aids Chinese Christians, said that Li and other human rights advocates were subjected to confinement in frigid jail cells, beatings, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, being given unidentified drugs, and being chained in stress positions. ...