Seriously ill Jiangsu Changzhou rights activist Yang Li continues to face persecution: Yang Li arbitrarily detained and tortured by Jintan police for seeking the right to medical care

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On November 8, 2026, this outlet learned that seriously ill Jiangsu Changzhou rights activist Yang Li continues to face persecution. Recently, when Yang Li sought the right to medical care, Jintan police arbitrarily detained and tortured her, posing a serious threat to her life.

According to a report from Yang Li’s older sister, Yang Caiying, who is exiled in Japan, Yang Li recently went to the Jintan District Government to discuss her right to medical care with District Party Committee Secretary Xu Yawei. She was then arbitrarily detained and tortured by Jintan police. In the evening, street-level officials and surveillance personnel took Yang Li home. She was in a state of confusion and collapse. Her family’s request that officials issue an order to address Yang Li’s condition was refused.

On November 6, 2026, a hospital nurse called the family to ask why Yang Li had not come to the hospital, as it was time for dialysis.

Yang Li now needs dialysis three times a week, and any delay could threaten her life and health.

After 8 a.m. on November 6, 2026, Yang Li went to the Jintan District Government in Changzhou holding a sign that read, “Xu Yawei, come out and resolve the obstruction to my medical care.” She demanded that District Party Committee Secretary Xu Yawei respond directly to the obstruction of her access to medical care. She was then unreachable.

It was later learned that Yang Li had been seized by Jiang Yecong and Wan Jia, stability-maintenance officers with the Jintan Public Security Bureau, and taken to a case-handling center, where she was detained and tortured.

At the case-handling center, Jiang Yecong and Wan Jia forcibly strapped Yang Li to an interrogation chair for several hours, until she lost consciousness. During that time, Jiang Yecong said that once her statement was ready, she would be taken to the hospital for dialysis. But afterward, they left Yang Li vomiting and unconscious and continued to refuse to take her to the hospital. From morning until she was taken home in the evening, police refused to provide any food.

After 7 p.m. that evening, two people claiming to be street-level staff and surveillance personnel took Yang Li home. Faced with Yang Li in a confused and extremely weakened state, her family asked the street-level staff to contact the officials who had issued the order and asked them to address Yang Li’s current condition. But to this day, those officials have refused to appear.

Previously, Yang Li had repeatedly gone to the district government to discuss medical care with Xu Yawei. Each time, Jintan police violently blocked her and arbitrarily detained her. They had also deliberately delayed her dialysis.

This time, Yang Li was again arbitrarily detained for insisting on her right to medical care. If she cannot receive dialysis today, she will face four to five consecutive days without dialysis, an extremely dangerous situation for a patient with uremia who depends on dialysis to stay alive.

However, Ma Yunpeng, head of the Jintan Binhu Police Station; squad leader Zhang Kaijie; and Luan Liukang, head of the Jintan Xicheng Subdistrict Office (formerly a deputy director of public security), have previously said several times that the government could seize the family’s property and leave them with nothing after the Yang family members die.

The Yang family’s history of rights defense:

In 2009, the Yang family was deceived by the Jiangsu authorities into surrendering their land. In 2013, the authorities hired organized criminal gangs to use iron bars to smash and destroy property and forcibly make the Yang family move. In 2014, Yang Li was retaliated against and detained after calling the police and asking them to stop a state-owned enterprise from obstructing a road used for passage. In 2016, the authorities illegally seized the Yang family’s land and destroyed the trees on it. Without following the statutory land-acquisition procedure, the police and procuratorate fabricated facts and refused to open a case, claiming the land had already been acquired. In 2017, Yang Li’s father, Yang Guoliang, was defrauded of all his savings by Tang Xiaojun, head of the Hengjie Sub-branch of the Bank of China in Jintan. In retaliation, the Jintan Public Security Sub-bureau opened a case but took no action. For more than a decade, the Yang family has sought redress through the courts for these illegal acts and rights violations, but because the Chinese Communist Party is above the law and the administration interferes with the judiciary, they have been unable to obtain fair treatment. Yang Li and her mother, Xu Dongqing, were later arrested and detained for traveling to Beijing to seek redress.

In August 2025, Yang Li was persecuted to the point of end-stage uremia at the Changzhou Detention Center, but the detention center refused to provide medical treatment, citing the lack of approval from a leader. On September 12, 2025, Xu Dongqing was sentenced to one year and two months in prison, and Yang Li to one year and three months. While detained, both were subjected to torture and inhumane treatment. In November and December 2025, Xu Dongqing and her daughter Yang Li were released after serving their sentences. Afterward, the two repeatedly tried to seek medical care outside the area, but Jintan police violently beat and obstructed them each time. Xu Dongqing was forced to undergo a medical examination at Jintan People’s Hospital, where her life-threatening condition was concealed from her. On February 10, 2026, with the United Nations’ attention, Yang Li and her parents finally reached Peking University First Hospital. Doctors diagnosed her condition as critical and said she urgently needed inpatient treatment, but because of deliberate interference by the Jiangsu authorities, the hospital refused to admit her for more than 20 days afterward. In the early hours of March 3, 2026, plainclothes officers from Jintan forcibly took Yang Li and her parents back to their home area in Changzhou. After that, Yang Li tried several times to find Jintan District Party Committee Secretary Xu Yawei and demand that he fulfill his duties, return the money needed to save her life, and safeguard her right to medical care. Jintan police violently blocked her, ultimately leading to Xu Dongqing’s death on May 25, 2026. Yang Li first received dialysis only eight months after being diagnosed with end-stage uremia, but to this day the authorities continue to severely restrict her dialysis medication, leaving the lifeline of her medical care in the hands of the police. Previously, several police officers, including Ma Yunpeng, head of the local Binhu Police Station, and squad leader Zhang Kaijie, openly said that once all the Yang family members had died, the government could seize all of the family’s property and leave them with nothing. On September 2, 2026, Chen Bin, deputy head of the Binhu Police Station in Jintan, Changzhou, Jiangsu, told Yang Li that the leaders had forbidden her from going to Beijing for medical care because once she reached Beijing, she would no longer be under local control.

That day, Yang Li had already vomited four times. More than ten illnesses and pains caused by torture in detention, as well as heart problems during dialysis, had gone untreated. Yet a single statement by a Chinese Communist Party official that he did not agree to treatment in Beijing was enough to arbitrarily deprive her of her right to medical care. In May this year, her mother, Xu Dongqing, also died after being deprived of medical care for a prolonged period.