Pastor Cao Sanqiang: Medical Treatment in Prison

Several people online asked me whether it was true that Wang Yi was seriously ill. I answered that I didn’t know, but that I could briefly explain the process and conditions for prisoners receiving medical care in prison.

I spent four and a half years in Kunming Prison and underwent three fairly extensive medical examinations. But the prison authorities never told me the results of my examinations. Except in cases of illnesses already known to the prisoner—for example, if a prisoner had diabetes before entering prison—the prison will tell the prisoner how the illness is progressing and follow up with treatment. In general, though, the prison authorities do not tell prisoners the results of their examinations.

Before entering prison, a prisoner will be given a fairly thorough medical examination. The examination has two purposes: first, to see whether the prisoner has HIV or a serious infectious disease; second, to see whether they have a terminal illness, such as late-stage liver cancer. If a prisoner has HIV, they will be assigned to a prison unit specifically for people with HIV. At Kunming Prison, prisoners with HIV are all assigned to the Fourth Unit, so this unit is also called “the HIV unit.”

If a prisoner has a terminal illness, the prison usually will not tell them. About half a month before the prisoner is expected to die, or at most a month beforehand, the prison authorities will arrange medical parole for the prisoner and notify the family to come and collect them. Prisons generally do not want prisoners to die in prison.

In Chinese prisons today, arranging medical parole is particularly difficult because prison officials do not want to take responsibility. If a prisoner commits another crime while on medical parole, the prison officials will be held accountable. For the prison authorities, the safest course is to wait until the prisoner has served their sentence, then release them. That way, the prison has nothing to do with anything the prisoner does after leaving prison.

I know of a prisoner who had only two months left to serve, yet the prison arranged medical parole for him. The other prisoners said, “This person must be close to death. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the prison authorities wait another two months and let him go home?”

Wang Yi’s health condition, like that of any other prisoner, is confidential information. If the prison authorities do not disclose it, no one knows what illness Wang Yi has—not even Wang Yi himself, especially since Wang Yi is a high-profile prisoner.

I was also considered a high-profile prisoner at Kunming Prison, but on visiting days the prison authorities never made things difficult for my mother and younger sister. When my mother came to visit, as soon as the prison authorities saw her, they would say that because of her age she did not need to queue, and would directly help her complete the visitation procedures and escort her into the visiting hall. Except during the pandemic, my mother or my younger sister would always travel from Changsha by train for a whole day to visit me every month.

According to people familiar with the matter, Wang Yi has been in prison for more than seven years, and his family has visited him only five times. Not counting the time he spent in the detention center, he has been in Chengdu Prison for at least five years. On average, Wang Yi’s family has been able to visit him only once a year. This is indefensible.

There is usually only one reason a prisoner’s visitation rights are taken away: the prisoner has violated prison rules, been punished, and placed in a strict-management group or a solitary-confinement cell. Otherwise, the prison authorities should not arbitrarily deprive prisoners of the right to see their families. Prisoners who cannot see their families will resist rehabilitation. Chinese prisons are intended to rehabilitate prisoners and should respect their basic rights and create a good environment for rehabilitation.

To be fair, Kunming Prison treated me reasonably. But some petty actions made me very uncomfortable, such as withholding my letters and my dictionary, and arbitrarily interrupting my visits with my mother, leaving her in tears after the exhausting two-day journey. Many letters people sent me were withheld and never reached me. When I left prison, all my belongings were confiscated, even my judgment. As a result, after I returned to Changsha, not having that document caused me quite a few inconveniences.

I hope Chengdu Prison will allow Wang Yi’s family to visit him. No matter how serious his crime is, his basic rights should not be taken away. At the same time, if Wang Yi’s family visits him, unconfirmed reports will not be flying around everywhere. That would be good for the family and for the credibility of the state.

I remember that when I was in prison, the television station broadcast a TV drama about how Nationalist generals were treated humanely in prison. These generals had the blood of Communists on their hands, but the new regime treated them very humanely. If the government could treat its sworn enemies so humanely, why can’t it treat Pastor Wang Yi well?

I sincerely wish Pastor Wang Yi well and hope he can pass the last year and three months of his prison term in peace. I also sincerely pray that the rights of prisoners in China will be respected. They should be able to communicate freely with their families and friends, and they should be able to learn about their health in a timely manner.

October 3, 2026