Niu Yan (牛艳) — Media Profile & Archive
This archive collects verified media and documentary records concerning Niu Yan (牛艳), a resident of Yezhugou Township, Huanren County, Benxi City, Liaoning Province, born in 1951, who was sentenced to three years and six months in 2024 in connection with her Falun Gong practice. Person Profile: Niu Yan (牛艳)
Case record
The CHRD Prisoners of Conscience database records: 牛艳, also recorded as 牛彦 or 牛燕, female, born 1951, of Yezhugou Township, Huanren County, Benxi City, Liaoning; Falun Gong practitioner. Taken into custody in March 2023. Sentenced to 3 years and 6 months by the Xihu District court in Benxi, with the term running to September 8, 2026. The charge and the detention facility are listed as unknown. (Database record used as an identity anchor; not a public-facing link.)
Reporting
Minghui (April 27, 2023) reported that Niu, then 72, was detained with fellow practitioner Song Yuemei in mid-March 2023 while distributing Falun Gong materials in Huanren County, was held at the Benxi Detention Center, and was formally arrested shortly afterward. The report recounts her prior detention history: a 1999 Beijing petition trip followed by a fifteen-day detention; a 2000 one-year term at the Masanjia labor camp; a 2001 arrest in Xinbin County followed by a seven-year sentence from the Xinbin County court in 2002, served at the Liaoning Provincial Women’s Prison (where she was transferred in March 2003); and a 2014 Tiananmen Square demonstration followed by fourteen months at the Benxi Detention Center and a three-and-a-half-year sentence. Minghui reports that she was subjected to beatings, electric-shock baton abuse, and forced labor during these detentions; these accounts have not been independently corroborated. The report names a participating officer, Wang Qi; contact details for individuals named in the source are withheld here. Minghui is a Falun Gong-run outlet; its account is presented as reported.
Read the Minghui report (Chinese)
Source chronology
- 1998 — began practicing Falun Gong (per Minghui).
- 1999-12 — Beijing petition trip; detained 15 days at the Huanren Detention Center (per Minghui).
- 2000 summer — detained at home; 1-year term at Masanjia labor camp (per Minghui).
- 2001-08 — arrested in Xinbin County; 2002 sentenced to 7 years by the Xinbin County court; transferred to Liaoning Provincial Women’s Prison in March 2003 (per Minghui).
- 2014-07-18 — Tiananmen Square demonstration; held 14 months at Benxi Detention Center; sentenced to 3.5 years (per Minghui).
- 2023-03 — detained in Huanren County while distributing Falun Gong materials; held at Benxi Detention Center; formally arrested (per Minghui; CHRD records the custody date as 2023-03-09, Minghui as 2023-03-16 — discrepancy noted below).
- 2024-05 — sentenced to 3 years 6 months by the Xihu District court, Benxi (per CHRD).
- 2026-09-08 — sentence term end (per CHRD). Release not documented; current status unknown.
Evidentiary limitations
The date of the 2023 detention differs by a week between the two sources (CHRD: March 9, 2023; Minghui: March 16, 2023); no reconciliation source found. The charge and the serving facility are unspecified in all available sources. No official judgment document or state-media record was found in a bounded search. No non-advocacy source has corroborated the case. Claims about the legality of the proceedings and about treatment in detention are attributed to Minghui and should be read as such.