Yang Xiaoguang (杨晓光)
Political prisoner — currently reported in custody. Yang Xiaoguang, a Falun Gong practitioner from Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on June 26, 2023. He appears in the August 2026 in-custody political-prisoner list with a 3.5-year sentence. The 2023 sentence followed sixteen earlier years of forced-labor and prison detention for his faith.
Key facts
- Status: Reported in custody as of August 31, 2026 (latest dated source).
- Sentence: 3 years 6 months plus a 10,000-yuan fine, imposed June 26, 2023 by the Mishan City Court.
- Place: Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province.
- Faith/community: Falun Gong practitioner (practicing since 1998, per case reporting).
- Case timeline: 1999–2001: two years in the Jixi forced-labor camp. 2002: sentenced to 14 years; served in Hada and Mudanjiang prisons. March 3, 2023: re-arrested. June 19, 2023: trial. June 26, 2023: 3.5-year sentence.
Background
After the 1999 crackdown on Falun Gong, Yang traveled to Beijing in July and October 1999 to appeal for the right to practice. He was arrested on Tiananmen Square at the end of November 1999, escorted back to Mishan, and — after refusing to sign a statement renouncing his belief — sent to the Jixi City forced-labor camp for two years on December 31, 1999. Reporting describes repeated torture in the camp, including beatings, solitary confinement, and being struck until he lost hearing in his right ear. He was released on medical bail in October 2001.
On April 25, 2002, Yang was arrested again while carrying Falun Gong informational materials near Jixi. The Mishan City Court sentenced him to 14 years in prison. He was first taken to Hada Prison and later transferred to Mudanjiang Prison, where reporting documents sustained torture — beatings by guards and inmates, solitary confinement, and forced-feeding during hunger strikes.
The 2023 case
On the morning of March 3, 2023, Yang spoke with a student about Falun Gong outside Yifu Elementary School in Mishan; the student reported him. That evening, officers from the Mishan City Domestic Security Office and the Limin Police Station broke into his home and arrested him. The procuratorate approved the arrest on March 17, 2023. At trial on June 19, 2023, the prosecutor recommended a 3.5-year term with a 10,000-yuan fine; the court announced the same sentence at the hearing’s end and issued the formal written verdict on June 26, 2023. Two law firms declined to represent him once they learned it was a Falun Gong case, according to the case report.
Current status
Yang Xiaoguang is listed among in-custody political prisoners in the August 31, 2026 monthly report, in the 3.5-year-sentence group. A 3.5-year term imposed in June 2023 would run to approximately December 2026; no release has been documented. His exact place of detention for the current term has not been independently confirmed.
Note on sources: the two earlier Minghui reports (2007, 2016) give ages consistent with a birth year around 1958; the 2023 report gives his age as 70 (implying ~1953). The discrepancy is noted here because the record does not resolve it.
Sources
- Minghui.org, “After Two Years of Forced Labor and 14 Years in Prison, 70-year-old Mr. Yang Xiaoguang Is Sentenced to 3.5 Years for His Faith,” August 20, 2023 — en.minghui.org/html/articles/2023/8/20/210901p.html
- Minghui.org, “Mr. Yang Xiaoguang Detained 16 Years for Practicing Falun Gong,” August 27, 2016 — en.minghui.org/html/articles/2016/8/27/158435p.html
- Clearwisdom, “Practitioner Mr. Yang Xiaoguang Suffers Brutal Persecution at the Mudanjiang Prison in Heilongjiang Province,” March 2007 — en.clearharmony.net
- 维权网 (Rights Defense Network), Issue 131 monthly report on in-custody political prisoners (August 31, 2026) — 3.5-year-sentence group; EN/Chinese editions.
Media coverage and source archive
See the media profile and archive for Yang Xiaoguang for the full source chronology and verification record.