Qin Yongmin has been in prison longer than some readers of these words have been alive: 22 years. He is 64, so a third of his life. This week Qin was sentenced to another 13 years in prison, this time for “subversion against the state.” He was arrested in 2015 for promoting the idea that China could transition peacefully to constitutional democracy, an idea Chinese authorities took to mean Qin and his confederates wanted to overthrow the government. He would not speak at his trial.

In 1978, shortly after the death of Mao Zedong, Qin, a steelworker in Wuhan in eastern China, co-founded and edited a pro-democracy magazine called Zhongsheng, or The Bell. He coordinated with reformist magazines from across the country and, with other dissidents, openly advocated democratic reforms in the hope that the end of the Cultural Revolution would mean a new era of constitutional self-government.