(Minghui.org)
Name: Yang LichengChinese Name: 杨立成Gender: MaleAge: 81City: QiqiharProvince: HeilongjiangOccupation: N/ADate of Death: August 2025Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 29, 2021Most Recent Place of Detention: Tailai Prison
An 81-year-old man in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, died in August 2025, one month before he was to finish a 4.5-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Yang Licheng was born on March 3, 1944. He was arrested on March 29, 2021. Because his wife is dead and there is no one to care for his incapacitated daughter, who is in her 40s, the police took her to a shelter.
Mr. Yang was sentenced to four and a half years and was sent to the Tailai Prison. He had a brain hemorrhage in August 2025 and died soon afterwards, one month before his term was set to expire.
Mr. Yang’s passing capped his decades of suffering at the hands of the communist regime. He credited Falun Gong for curing his cervical spondylosis (degenerative changes affecting cervical spine), blood hyper viscosity (thickening blood), and severe rheumatism. His wife was amazed by his changes and began practicing Falun Gong. Falun Gong’s principles helped the couple to better cope with their daughter’s condition. Their daughter developed depression after another student whose family had connections took her spot at her dream university.
After the persecution began in 1999, Mr. Yang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in December 2000 and he was arrested on the 29th that month, when he returned to Qiqihar. He was held at the Qiqihar City Second Detention Center, where he was beaten and verbally abused.
Mr. Yang was given one year of forced labor in late March 2001 and transferred to the Fuyu Labor Camp. He faced more abuse there, including being pinched and having cold water poured over his head.
After another arrest on June 5, 2009, Mr. Yang was sentenced to four years and served time at the same Tailai Prison. He described how the police abused him following his arrest. See the first related report for details.
Mr. Yang was released on January 7, 2013, only to see his wife and son die one after another in a short span of time. His wife lived because she was under constant stress during his imprisonment, and their son, a college professor, also faced tremendous pressure from his school administration because he refused to go on TV to smear Falun Gong.
While mourning the loss of his wife and son, Mr. Yang took meticulous care of his daughter, who had become incapacitated. After he was arrested again on March 29, 2021, his daughter was sent to a shelter. She never saw her father again. He died in the Tailai Prison in August 2025.
Mr. Yang was not the first Falun Gong practitioner who died at the Tailai Prison. Mr. Lyu Guanru, 69, died on April 4, 2021, while serving a 7-year term. Mr. Zhong Guoquan, 72, died on February 6, 2022, while serving a 3.5-year term.
Many more practitioners were injured or developed mental disorders as a result of the torture (see the second related report for details). Mr. Gao Ke, who is serving a 4.5-year term, was abused to the point of having a mental breakdown.
Seventy-Year-Old Practitioner Tortured and Shocked by Police
Heilongjiang’s Tailai Prison Actively Persecutes Falun Gong Practitioners