Yang Lanying (杨兰英)
Yang Lanying is a retired teacher from Xupu County, Hunan Province, and a practitioner of Falun Gong. She was sentenced to three and a half years in prison in May 2025 for her religious practice.
She was arrested on April 24, 2024, during a coordinated police sweep in Xupu County. The operation was ordered by Zheng Zhongbing, director of the Xupu County “610 Office,” and Xia Haofeng, head of the county’s Domestic Security Division. That same day, police also arrested six other local practitioners, including Mao Yanping and Wang Juying.
After the initial arrests, Yang was held at the Xupu County lockup and then transferred to the Huaihua City Detention Center. She was tried by the Yuanling County Court — about 80 miles from Xupu — on May 7, 2025, together with Mao Yanping and Wang Juying. The court sentenced Yang to three and a half years, while Mao and Wang each received three years. The families were not informed of the trial; they learned of the sentences only on June 18, 2025, and on June 19 confirmed that the judge had not allowed the three practitioners to appeal.
The 2025 prosecution followed years of repeated short detentions, all reported by Minghui.org in connection with her faith: in May 2016, May 2020, and January 2021, she was detained for 15 days each time after distributing Falun Gong informational materials, and she was among more than ten practitioners seized in an October 2023 sweep in Xupu County. The exact date of her re-arrest ahead of the 2025 trial is not reported.
Yang’s case was reported by Minghui.org, which has documented Falun Gong persecution cases since 1999. No official Chinese government or state-media record of her case has been located.
Sources for this profile
- Minghui.org, “Three Hunan Residents Sentenced for Practicing Falun Gong, Barred from Appealing Wrongful Convictions” (June 26, 2025) — http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2025/6/26/228639.html
Media Profile & Archive: Yang Lanying — Media Profile & Archive