Jiang Tianyong was born in Luoshan, Henan district. He graduated from the School of Chinese Language and Literature Education at Hunan Changsha Utilities College (Presently known as Changsha University) and became a secondary school language teacher in Chengzhou. In 2001, he qualified as a lawyer and in 2004 began practicing in the Beijing Globe Law Firm.
Mr. Jiang has been a long-term activist, including his participation in Hepatitis B and HIV carriers cases and Falun Gong cases, Beijing Lawyers Association Direct Elections, etc, and thus has been constantly under surveillance, harassment and threatened by the authorities. In June 2008, he was prohibited from meeting a Human Rights steering team delegation of the US Congress. In 2009, when the House of Representatives Leader Nancy Pelosi visited Beijing during the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 20th Anniversary of the June-fourth incident, Mr. Jiang was kept under house arrest.
In 2006, he began to encounter problems with the yearly renewal of his lawyer’s license. In 2008, he was disbarred for two months until his license was returned. In July 2009, his license was revoked by the Beijing legal authorities and has not yet been reissued. After that he was employed as an arbitrator by the Beijing Zhiai Research Centre.
On 19th February 2011, on the eve before the China Jasmine incident, Mr. Jiang was detained by the police until his release on 20th April. On 3rd May 2012, Jiang was on his way to the Beijing Chaoyang hospital to visit the then hospitalized activist Chen Guangcheng and was taken away by the state security officers of the Haidian District. He was detained for 9 hours in a hotel and was released the following morning. During his detention, he was brutally beaten by the state security, which ended up in perforation of his left ear and hearing loss in his right ear. He was not allowed to seek medical help during the early stages of his injury. Since then he has been under house arrest and surveillance.
In July 2012, he was awarded the 2012 ‘Defending Religious Freedom and Rule of Law with Courage Award’ by the China Aid Association.
In March 2014, Jiang visited the “Jiansanjiang black jail” in Heilongjiang. He was detained and beaten by the police, which ended up in 8 broken ribs.
In November 2017, Jiang went disappeared during 709 Crackdown. The public security bureau later admitted that Jiang was detained by them for the alleged crime of "inciting subversion of state power", and Jiang was indicted for "subverting state power" afterwards. Changsha Intermediate People's Court held a so-called "Open" trial on the case of Jiang on Agust 22, 2017. Jiang was represented by two government-appointed lawyers in the hearing, and he pleaded guilty in the trial. The court has not yet given the verdict until now.