Yang Mingyu (杨明玉)
Yang Mingyu is a labor-rights and pro-democracy activist from Shandong Province who has lived in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. He is reported to be serving his second prison sentence — eight years — imposed in 2022.
Mr. Yang, also known as Yang Lin, was born in 1968 and worked as a migrant laborer. After a workplace injury led him into rights advocacy, he became an initial signatory of the Charter 08 manifesto and a vocal supporter of the New Citizens Movement’s 2013 campaign calling on government officials to disclose their assets. In June 2013 he disappeared in Shenzhen shortly after trying to meet with the United States ambassador to discuss human rights conditions. He was held incommunicado for 37 days and then formally arrested by Shenzhen’s Futian public-security branch on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power,” according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), a coalition of Chinese and international rights groups.
On November 24, 2015, the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment plus four years’ deprivation of political rights, and he was released on June 12, 2016 at the end of his term, CHRD records. The Dui Hua Foundation reported in 2023 that Yang had been sentenced to eight years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in 2022, his second prison term; the details of what led to his re-imprisonment remain unclear, according to Dui Hua. The Rights Defense Network’s monthly report of mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists Yang Mingyu among reported in-custody prisoners in its fixed-term eight-year group.
No official Chinese government or state-media record of the 2022 case has been located. The detention facility for the current term is not stated in the records located and is not inferred here.
Sources for this profile
- Dui Hua Foundation, “Prisoner Updates 2023 #3” — https://duihua.org/prisoner-updates-2023-3/ — Yang Mingyu (杨明玉), completed his three-year inciting-subversion sentence in June 2016, sentenced to eight years for picking quarrels and provoking trouble in 2022; details of the re-imprisonment remain unclear.
- Chinese Human Rights Defenders, “Yang Lin (杨林)” prisoner-of-conscience profile (December 18, 2013) — https://www.nchrd.org/2013/12/prisoner-of-conscience-yang-lin-%c2%9f/ — first case: disappeared June 12, 2013; arrested July 19, 2013; tried May 6, 2014; sentenced November 24, 2015 (three years + four years’ deprivation of political rights); released June 12, 2016; Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court; background on activism.
- CHRD, “Submission to UN on Yang Mingyu – August 26, 2013” — https://www.nchrd.org/2013/09/submission-to-un-on-yang-mingyu-august-26-2013/ — allegation letter to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: identity (杨 Mingyu 明玉, born April 14, 1968, Han, Shandong migrant worker based in Shenzhen, Charter 08 signatory), arrest and detention details, 37 days incommunicado, Futian PSB.
Media Profile & Archive: Yang Mingyu — Media Profile & Archive