(Minghui.org) Sanctioning human rights abusers has become a consensus among democratic countries. After the U.S. passed the Magnitsky Act in 2016, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the 27-member-country EU enacted similar laws. Australia and Japan are working on the same.

In accordance with these laws, Falun Gong practitioners have compiled lists of perpetrators involved in the persecution of Falun Gong these few years. Every year they submit several lists to democratic governments, urging them to sanction the named perpetrators.

Starting on July 14, 2021, Falun Gong practitioners in more than 30 countries are submitting the latest list of perpetrators involved in the persecution of Falun Gong to their respective governments, demanding sanctions on these human rights abusers, including denying entry into their countries and freezing their assets overseas.

One name on this list is Yang Yaowei.

Perpetrator Information

Full Name of Perpetrator: Yang (last name) Yaowei (first name) (Chinese: 杨耀威)Gender: MaleCountry: ChinaDate/Year of Birth: April 1962

Title or Position:

Yang Yaowei is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of Dalian City in Liaoning Province, Vice Mayor of the Dalian Municipal Government, and the Director of the Dalian Municipal Public Security Bureau. He has held the following positions:

Yang was the Director of the Suizhong County Public Security Bureau of Huludao City in Liaoning Province. On July 5, 1999, he was appointed the Deputy Director of the local “610 Office,” an extra-legal gestapo-like organization specifically created to persecute Falun Gong practitioners.

October 1998 – January 2010: Based in Huludao City, Yang was the Vice Director of Lianshan District, Director of the Lianshan Public Security Department, and Vice Director of the Huludao Municipal Public Security Bureau.

February 2010 – March 2012: Chief of Economic Crime Investigation Team at the Liaoning Provincial Public Security Department.

April 2012 – September 14, 2015: Director of the Dandong Municipal Public Security Bureau; Vice Mayor of Dandong City and Director of the Public Security Bureau in Dandong.

September 2015 – October 2017: Deputy Director of the Public Security Department of Liaoning Province.

November 2017 – Present: Deputy Secretary of the Dalian Municipal Political and Legal Committee, Deputy Mayor of the Dalian Municipal Government, Director of the Dalian Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Main Crimes

Since July 20, 1999, when the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong, Yang Yaowei has been actively implementing the CCP’s persecution policy targeting Falun Gong practitioners. He has been the main planner, controller, commander, and promoter of the persecution of Falun Gong in the Public Security system in the cities of Huludao, Dandong, and Dalian. Yang’s involvement of persecuting Falun Gong have been repeatedly exposed on Minghui.org. During Yang’s tenure, more than 13 Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death; many Falun Gong practitioners were injured and disabled, resulting in broken families and deaths. A lot of Falun Gong practitioners had to flee their homes to avoid further persecution. Yang Yaowei is primarily responsible for all those crimes and should be held accountable.

1. Yang Yaowei’s Persecution of Falun Gong in Huludao City

Between July 20, 1999, and January 2010, at least four Falun Gong practitioners were persecuted to death in Suizhong County. They are Chen Dewen, Su Juzhen, Fan Dezhen, and Tian Shaoyan. Yang Yaowei, as the Director of the Suizhong County Public Security Bureau and the Deputy Director of the Huludao Municipal Public Security Bureau, is responsible for the practitioners’ deaths.

i) Mr. Chen Dewen passed away after being force-fed a large amount of concentrated salt water; and his wife, Gao Guiying, also a Falun Gong practitioner, died from the grief of losing her husband.

Mr. Chen was arrested when he went to Beijing on October 30, 1999 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was detained at the Suizhong Detention Center, where he was severely beaten because he refused to give up his faith. His eyes were still bleeding ten days later.

Later on, Mr. Chen was sentenced to two years at the Huludao Municipal Forced Labor Camp. Upon his arrival, he was brutally beaten, verbally abused, and physically punished by prison guards and criminal inmates. In December 2000, Mr. Chen was forcibly “transformed” (forced to renounce his faith), violently brainwashed, and otherwise abused. Seven guards used seven electric batons to shock him in various parts of his body simultaneously. When the electric batons’ batteries ran out, the guards surrounded him and kicked him while the batons were charging.

On March 6, 2001, Mr. Chen was force-fed. The prison guards used four pairs of handcuffs to tie down his limbs. When inserting the tube, several people held down his hands and feet and inserted the tube through his nose. Once a day they inserted the nasal tube to pour in salt water. As a result of the brutal forced feeding, he coughed all day long. His mouth muscles twitched and he suffered extreme pain.

On the night of March 10, 2001, Mr. Chen was taken to a hospital due to his deteriorating condition. He died the next morning on March 11. He was 58 years old.

After Mr. Chen passed away, the forced labor camp falsely claimed that he had died of a heart attack to cover up his murder. His wife, Ms. Gao Guiying, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was arrested by police and detained at the Suizhong Detention Center for 45 days in 2000. In February 2012, Ms. Gao died as a result of overwhelming sorrow.

ii) Mr. Fan Dezhen abused and killed at the Suizhong Detention Center.

Mr. Fan Dezhen and his wife were both arrested on February 25, 2008. On the same day, Mr. Fan was taken to the Suizhong Detention Center. During his detention, which lasted more than a month, Mr. Fan was subjected to all kinds of torture, including force-feeding, beatings, and being shocked with electric batons, among others.

On April 20, 2008, Mr. Fan was tortured to death at the age of 33. His body was covered with bruises on both his arms, his abdomen, and all the way down to his knees. His face was distorted, and his jaws were clenched.

The day after Mr. Fan’s death, the police, without the consent of his family, conducted an autopsy and then cremated his body.

2. Persecution in Dandong City

From April 2012 to September 2015, while Yang Yaowei was the Vice Mayor of Dandong City and the Director of the Dandong Public Security Bureau, he actively cooperated with the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the “610 Office” to control the entire Dandong Public Security System to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in the city were monitored, arrested, homes ransacked, detained, and sentenced to prison. Practitioners Xiu Jinqiu and Ren Shuwen were persecuted to death.

i) Ms. Xiu Jinqiu Tortured to Death

Ms. Xiu Jinqiu was arrested on September 5, 2013, while talking to people about the persecution near her home. The police locked her up in a room and cuffed her legs and feet to a metal chair for several days. Her legs and feet swelled up. A young policeman wearing leather shoes repeatedly stepped hard on her swollen toes, turning them black and blue. A nail on her right foot fell off.

Because she was tied up for a long period of time, Ms. Xiu became swollen all over. Her body twitched a lot, and her abdomen swelled up so much so that she could not eat or walk. On November 16, 2013, she became unconscious. The police took Ms. Xiu, who was on the verge of death, to the hospital. The doctors said there was nothing more they could do, and on November 28, 2013, Ms. Xiu passed away.

ii) Ms. Teng Xiuling Lost Her Ability to Speak Due to Persecution

Around noon on June 25, 2013, Ms. Teng Xiuling was violently arrested by police officers while shopping for clothes at a shopping mall with her family. She was locked up at the Dandong Detention Center. A week later, she was tortured until she lost her ability to speak.

On September 16, the Donggang Municipal Court secretly sentenced Ms. Teng to three years and six months in prison without holding a hearing or notifying her family. On September 22, three court officials went to the Dandong Detention Center and tried to force her to sign the verdict; she refused.

Under the continuous pressure of the court officers, Ms. Teng’s limbs started to twitch and foam came out of her mouth. The court officers took the opportunity to pull up her hand and forcibly press her fingerprint on the verdict.

On the afternoon of October 15, the Dandong Detention Center called Ms. Teng’s family to have them meet her at the detention center. The police told her husband that Ms. Teng could not speak despite having only spent one week at the detention center; she also had five seizures within two months. After that family visit, the police tried several times to take her to the Shenyang Women’s Prison. However, the prison refused to admit her due to her poor health. On November 26, the detention center finally managed to transfer Ms. Teng to Shenyang Women’s Prison.

iii) Several Falun Gong Practitioners in Dandong City Arrested and Sentenced

From late at night on April 18, 2015, into the early morning of April 19, 2015, at least 43 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested by the local police in Dandong City. That arrest operation was secretly planned by the Dandong Municipal Committee of the CCP, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, the “610 Office,” and the Dandong Public Security Bureau, with at least 1,000 people involved in the operation.

Police used four approaches to carry out the arrests: deceiving practitioners into opening the door to their homes; road hijacking to grab the keys to open their door; prying open security doors to break into their houses; waiting near the entrance and taking advantage of the opportunity when practitioners’ family opened the door to rush into the house. The police raided practitioners’ homes and arrested them. In Donggang City alone, the police took more than 140,000 yuan, as well as certificates of deposit, bank cards, cell phones, and personal belongings.

On December 28, 2015, several Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced. Among them, Sun Yongqin was sentenced to eight years in prison, Zhang Wei to eight-and-a-half years, Chen Yinge to eight years, Zhang Xiaoping to five years, Lin Zhiyan to five years, and Sun Yan to four years.

3. Persecution in Dalian City

In November 2017, Yang Yaowei became the Vice Mayor of the Dalian Municipal Government and Director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. After he took office, he continued to implement the CCP’s policy of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. According to information from Minghui.org, since he took office, at least seven Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death, including Xie Dewen, Song Shuchun, Zheng Decai, Zhu Benfu, Sun Yuying, Huang Guiying, and Cai Shurun. Ninety-seven people were arrested and harassed from March to April 2021 alone, making Dalian one of the worst cities in the country.

Cases of Practitioners Persecuted to Death

i) Ms. Sun Yuying was in her 80s. In 2019, her home was raided twice by the Sha District National Protection Squad and the local police. Her private property, such as Falun Gong keepsakes, were confiscated; even her hearing aids worth 6,000 yuan were taken. Police from the Dalian Public Security Bureau also took 10,000 yuan in cash. She passed away in August 2019 having suffered extreme injustice.

ii) Mr. Zheng Decai was 84 years old. He was arrested at home on September 4, 2017 and taken to a detention center. On April 12, 2018, he was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison. When he was released from the prison in August 2019, his health was very poor. He could barely walk or eat and was emaciated. He passed away on November 21. Even right before his death, village officials and police still regularly raided his home and harassed him.

iii) Ms. Song Shuchun was 71 years old. She was arrested and detained several times. On November 12, 2018, Ms. Song was arrested and her home was raided. She was detained for 13 months at the Yaojia Detention Center in Dalian, where she was physically abused and persecuted to the point of being unable to eat during her last month there. She was released on December 11, 2019, since she was no longer able to eat. Her stomach and upper abdomen were swollen, and she remained under police surveillance. Severely physically and mentally persecuted, she passed away on the evening of May 30, 2020.

Cases of Illegal Arrests and Sentencing

i) On the night of March 18, 2018, nine Falun Gong practitioners in Dalian City were arrested when they went to distribute materials exposing the crimes of the CCP at Paotai Township in Wafangdian City. Later, their homes were ransacked and they were sentenced. Here are their verdicts:

Ms. Gu Xiuhua, 49, sentenced to four years.Ms. Zhang Sanman, 60, sentenced to three years and eight months.Ms. Tan Chunrong, 65, sentenced to three years and eight months.Ms. Wang Liguo, 47, sentenced to four years.Ms. Sun Baoying, 42, sentenced to four years.Mr. Zhou Xing, 46, sentenced to four years.Mr. Li Tianxue, 64, sentenced to three years and two months.Mr. Liu Jinglong, 41, sentenced to three years and three months.Mr. Liu Xiyong, 77, sentenced to three years.

ii) On November 12, 2018, the Dalian Political and Legal Committee and “610 Office,” in collusion with the Dalian Public Security Bureau and the Zhongshan District Public Security Bureau, used wiretapping, surveillance, tracking, and other methods to arrest more than twenty Falun Gong practitioners.

They are: Ms. Song Shuchun, 70; Ms. Song Xuecun, 69; Ms. Xu Yanxia, 55; Ms. Jiang Lianxiang, 66; Ms. Cheng Yurong, 71; Ms. Chen Yuerong, 61; Ms. Wang Junying, 51; and Mr. Zhang Kexin, 40.

They were sentenced to heavy prison terms in 2019: Ms. Song Xucun was given eight years; Ms. Chen Yuerong eight years; Mr. Zhang Kexin eight years; Ms. Xu Yanxia eight years and six months; Ms. Cheng Yurong four years; Ms. Jiang Lianxiang three years and three months; Ms. Song Shuchun three years, with a probation of four years.

Ms. Song Shuchun passed away in May 2020.

iii) On the morning of July 11, 2019, Mr. Ding Guochen was tutoring students when he was arrested. His wife, Ms. Yan Qinghua, was also arrested from their home simultaneously.

Mr. Ding was detained at the Jinzhou District Detention Center and was persecuted to the point of losing consciousness and becoming deaf in both ears before he was released. On May 14, 2020, Mr. Ding learned that both he and his wife were facing prosecution. Because he refused to cooperate with the court, police officers from the police station and court personnel often harassed them at home. On January 27, 2021, Mr. Ding suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and remained in a coma. He was sentenced to two years in prison and Ms. Yan to three years and six months on February 4, 2021. At that time, Mr. Ding was still in a coma.

iv) On July 10 and 11, 2020, the Dalian Public Security Bureau of Dalian City arrested Falun Gong practitioners from various areas of Dalian City. According to available statistics, at least 30 Falun Gong practitioners and their families were arrested, and their homes were ransacked during those two days, including practitioners in their 90s. A total of more than three million yuan were confiscated.

On December 7, 2020, seven practitioners were sentenced by the court. Du Yongfeng was sentenced to nine years; Zhang Chunfeng was sentenced to seven years; Fan Yongmei was sentenced to four years; Zhang Liping was sentenced to three years; He Yongqin was sentenced to three years; and Wei Duo and her husband, Chu Zhengjie, were each sentenced to one year.