In a recent incident in Jinshan District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, rights activist Yang Li, who suffers from stage 4 kidney disease, and her 72-year-old mother Xu Dongqing, who has a serious heart condition, were illegally detained in late November for accusing the local authorities in Jiangsu of illegal land expropriation and wrongful handling of their case by the Jinshan police and procuratorate. They were arrested by the Jinshan procuratorate on charges of disrupting the work order of state agencies. They are currently held in the Changzhou City detention center.
According to a former inmate who just got released from the same cell, “Yang Li, who suffers from kidney disease, has been subjected to food abuse since being detained in the Changzhou City detention center. She is fed salty vegetables for breakfast daily, which kidney patients should not eat, while boiled cabbage is served for lunch and dinner. Yang Li protested against the arbitrary detention and food abuse by refusing to eat and as a result, she was subjected to four days of being shackled hand and foot. Several attempts to ring the bell to complain inside the detention center were met with violent responses from the cell’s staff.”
The former inmate further revealed, “During this period, Yang Li was force-fed due to her hunger strike protest. However, the detention center continues to refuse to provide special meals for her condition. Due to prolonged abuse and torture, Yang Li recently developed renal anemia and severe leg edema.”
She also disclosed that in the Changzhou City detention center, female detainees are deprived of any dignity and gender privacy: bathing and water use are restricted. When showers are not provided, they have to use their hands to clean themselves.
Yang Li’s sister, Yang Caiying, who resides in Japan, told a reporter that the Jinshan District authorities in Changzhou City had initially detained Yang Li on charges of provocation, but later arrested her on charges of disrupting the work order of state agencies. During the preliminary examination by the national security agency in Changzhou, the focus was unexpectedly on the details of Yang Li and her father Yang Guoliang’s trip to Beijing on July 15, 2024.
Yang Caiying explained, “On July 15, 2024, when my mother was first detained due to filing a complaint, Yang Li and my father were followed and monitored by undercover Jinshan police officers all the way to Beijing. They were violently abducted at Beijing South Station. I was on a video call with Yang Li at the time, recording the whole incident. I later made the video public to various parliamentary and human rights organizations and played it on loop at the Chinese consulate in Nagoya and Nagoya Station, and also shared it multiple times on Twitter.”
Yang Caiying also indicated that the recent arrest and mistreatment of her mother Xu Dongqing and sister Yang Li are likely retaliation from the authorities for the public release of the video documenting their abduction.
Yang Caiying made a public appeal on X platform, demanding that Changzhou’s Deputy Mayor and Public Security Bureau Director Yu Guiping immediately investigate and address the torture and food abuse in the Changzhou City detention center, and order the provision of special meals for Yang Li and other patients. She also called for immediate improvements in the general and patient detainee diet and the deplorable environment concerning bathing and water use for detained individuals.