The lawyers and acquaintances of Niu Tengyu, a 22-year-old man viewed by the authorities as being the main culprit, have said he was coerced into making a confession through torture, even though he is innocent, reports Kyodo News.

In mid-2019, an overseas website posted a face photo, name, address, date of birth, identification card and mobile phone number as being those of Xi's daughter. Information purported to be that of Xi and his brother-in-law was also divulged online, the news agency reported.

Since July that year, the authorities had detained people related to a website called "esu wiki," which shared the information, and 24 of them were convicted in December 2020 of public order turmoil and misuse of personal information, sources told Kyodo News.

Niu, an operator of the esu wiki website, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, with the court saying he had "illegally" obtained personal information of a third party. The ruling did not mention Xi by name, reports the news agency.

Xiao Yanrui, who founded the esu wiki website and now lives in Japan, told Kyodo News that the information on Xi's daughter was originally posted on a website other than Niu's and that someone outside China had bought the information from a Chinese police officer for 6,000 yuan ($924).