Yang Mingyu (杨明玉) — Media Profile & Archive

October 9, 2026

Yang Mingyu — Media Profile & Archive

Person profile: Yang Mingyu — Political Prisoner Profile

This page preserves the dated public record on Yang Mingyu (杨明玉, also known as Yang Lin 杨林) — the Shenzhen-based activist who served a three-year sentence from 2013 to 2016 and is reported to be serving an eight-year sentence imposed in 2022 — with source attributions and the limits of what is known.

Case chronology

June 12, 2013 — Yang Mingyu (aka Yang Lin) goes missing in Shenzhen after attempting to meet with the United States ambassador to discuss human rights conditions; Beijing police intercept him. He is held incommunicado. (CHRD, 2013-12-18)
July 19, 2013 — The Futian Branch of the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau issues a formal arrest notice on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”; his brother Yang Mingzhu receives it. (Reuters via Daily Times / CHRD, 2013-08-19)
August 26, 2013 — CHRD files an allegation letter with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Yang Mingyu’s behalf, identifying him (born April 14, 1968, Han Chinese, Shandong native, Shenzhen-based migrant laborer, Charter 08 signatory) and describing 37 days of secret detention at Futian PSB facilities. (CHRD, 2013-09-11)
May 6, 2014 — Trial at the Shenzhen Municipal Intermediate People’s Court. (CHRD, 2013-12-18)
November 24, 2015 — Sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and four years’ deprivation of political rights. (CHRD, 2013-12-18; CHRD weekly briefing, 2015-12)
June 12, 2016 — Released at the end of his sentence from the Shenzhen City No. 2 Detention Center. (CHRD, 2013-12-18)
2022 — Sentenced to eight years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”; the details of what led to his re-imprisonment remain unclear. His case came to light through a news report updating his situation. (Dui Hua, Prisoner Updates 2023 #3)
August 31, 2026 — The Rights Defense Network’s monthly report of mainland political prisoners and prisoners of conscience (Issue 131) places Yang Mingyu in its fixed-term-imprisonment section in the “sentenced to eight years” group (Chinese edition).

Case actors named in reporting

Futian Branch, Shenzhen City Public Security Bureau (detaining/arresting authority in 2013).
Shenzhen Municipal Intermediate People’s Court (trial and sentencing court in 2014–2015).
Lawyer Li Jinglin (李静林) — attempted to visit Yang at Futian District Detention Center on August 12, 2013 and was refused (CHRD UN submission).
Brother Yang Mingzhu (杨明珠) — received the July 19, 2013 arrest notice (Reuters via Daily Times).

Co-defendants / separate persons (DO NOT MERGE)

Yang Chih-yuan (楊智淵), Taiwan — born 1990, Taichung; vice chairman of the Taiwan National Party; detained August 3, 2022 in Wenzhou; nine-year secession sentence in 2024. Different person.
Yang Maodong / Guo Feixiong — sentenced to eight years in May 2023 by Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court for inciting subversion. Different person.
Yang Hengjun — detained January 2019 on espionage charges. Different person.
Wu Gan (“Super Vulgar Butcher”) — eight-year subversion sentence in December 2017. Different person.

Source provenance and limitations

The 2013–2016 case is documented by CHRD (prisoner profile, UN allegation letter, weekly briefings) and contemporary wire reporting (Reuters, August 2013, carried by the Daily Times and republished by CHRD). The 2022 re-sentencing is reported by the Dui Hua Foundation’s prisoner-updates roundup; Dui Hua notes the specifics leading to his re-imprisonment remain unclear. No official Chinese court document or state-media record of the 2022 case has been located. The detention facility for the current term is unattested and is not inferred.

Consulate / official-source check

In 2013 Yang attempted to meet with the US ambassador shortly before his disappearance; no consular action or statement on his case has been located — not found. PRC government sources searched (court notices, state media) for the 2022 eight-year sentence: no official acknowledgment found. Result: not found; the 2022 case record rests on Dui Hua’s reporting and the prisoners-of-conscience database listing.