Yang Tanguo (杨谈国)
Yang Tanguo is a resident of Qinzhou District in Tianshui City, Gansu Province, and a practitioner of Falun Gong. He is reported serving a two-year prison sentence.
In late December 2024, domestic-security officers of the Qinzhou branch of the Tianshui City Public Security Bureau detained Mr. Yang at his home and searched the residence, according to reporting attributed to Minghui, a Falun Gong-affiliated news service, as compiled in the prisoners-of-conscience database maintained by Chinese Human Rights Defenders. He was placed in criminal detention and then formally arrested with the approval of the Qinzhou District Procuratorate. He was held at the Qinzhou District Detention Center, and his family was not allowed to visit him, the database records.
Mr. Yang was prosecuted together with four others: fellow Falun Gong practitioners Wang Shilie, Liu Qiye, and Ma Xiaojuan, and Liu Qiye’s husband, who does not practice Falun Gong. The Qinzhou District Procuratorate twice returned the case to the police for insufficient evidence, according to the co-defendant account documented on the FreeChina.live profile of Wang Shilie. The families were not notified of the trial and only learned in July 2026 that the Qinzhou District Court had sentenced Mr. Yang and Mr. Wang to two years each.
The Rights Defense Network’s monthly report on mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists Yang Tanguo among reported in-custody prisoners in its fixed-term two-year group, and the prisoners-of-conscience database records a release date of December 2026.
The formal charge against Mr. Yang is not stated in the records located, and no official court judgment has been located. The circumstances of his detention are the reporting outlets’ accounts and are presented as reported, not as independently verified official findings.
Sources for this profile
- Prisoners of Conscience Database (CHRD), 杨谈国 / Yang Tanguo, record poc_y_00288 — http://tenchu.org/pocd/public/pocs/4703 — male; resident of Qinzhou District, Tianshui, Gansu; Falun Gong practitioner; taken away late December 2024 by Qinzhou domestic-security officers; home searched; held at Qinzhou District Detention Center, family visits denied; arrested with Qinzhou District Procuratorate approval; sentenced to 2 years by the Qinzhou District Court in July 2026 (charge and detention location unknown); release 2026.12; status In prison; updated 2026-08-21.
- FreeChina.live, “Wang Shilie (王世烈)” — https://freechina.live/uncategorized/wang-shilie/ — co-defendant case account: five-person prosecution (Wang Shilie, Liu Qiye, Ma Xiaojuan, Yang Tanguo, Liu Qiye’s husband); late-December 2024 detentions in Qinzhou District; procuratorate twice returned the case for insufficient evidence; July 2026 sentences — Wang and Yang Tanguo two years each; attributes detention circumstances to Minghui.
- Rights Defense Network, “中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告（2026年8月31日）第131期” — Yang Tanguo listed in the fixed-term “判刑2年” (two-year sentence) in-custody group (EN edition: “Sentenced to 2 years, 32 people”).
Media profile and archive
A chronological record of the reporting on this case, with source verification, is preserved in the companion media profile and archive.