Nagoya Resident Yang Caiying’s Desperate Calls for Her Dying Mother and Sister in China

Guest contribution by Patrick Poon

Editors Note: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are those of the author.

Yang Caiying, a gentle Chinese woman with a soft voice living in Nagoya, has been tirelessly trying to save her ailing sister Yang Li and mother Xu Dongqing, who passed away on the morning of 25 May 2026. The local police in her hometown have been trying to threaten her personal safety in Japan in an attempt to silence her.

Caiying has lived in Japan for about 25 years after finding a job from an online advertisement at a duty-free shop at the Chubu Centrair Airport. However, relying on her savings and Japanese husband to support her activism work, Caiying left her job and has been devoting most of her time trying to inform others about her mother and sister’s plights. 

Although Caiying and her mother understood that her advocacy work for her family meant she couldn’t return to China, she does not regret speaking up. 

“If I don’t speak up, my mother and my sister’s situation would be even worse.” she said. “At least, I can let people know about how they have been treated.” 

The family lives in Jintan qu, Changzhou, in Jiangsu province, east China. Her family’s case is typical among the over 2,000 households in Jintan District, Changzhou, Jiangsu, as they have been constantly harassed by the officers of local authorities known as “chengguan” in Chinese (城管) and gangsters while they tried to petition to the higher level of government about their cases of forced evictions. 

The evictions were due to local authorities pressing for urban redevelopment in the area. Corruption was rampant. There was no transparency on the money related to the forced evictions despite legal requirements for disclosure. That was the main reason Caiying’s family went in 2023 and since then to petition in Beijing after exhausting all possible legal remedies. Fan Shoubo（范寿柏） and Fei Gaoyun（费高云）, two local party officials involved in hiring the thugs, have recently been punished and arrested. The family was targeted simply because they went to petition in Beijing trying to demand justice for the Jintang government’s illegal and forcible land grabs of their house, which is common in rural areas in China.

The Yang family has refused to give up their home. Since 2009, the local authorities have used various tricks and tactics in efforts to forcibly evict them. In November 2011, the authorities sent some people to the Yang family home, attempting to steal their land registration documents. In June 2013, they believe the local government sent some thugs to smash things at their home and threaten them to move. After this attack, Caiying’s mother, Xu, contracted heart disease which she believes is  a result of what her family faced. Meanwhile, Li’s health conditions also deteriorated and went to Beijing No. 1 Hospital to seek medical treatment for urgent dialysis but the hospital refused to admit her, perhaps due to Caiyang's activism. Li continued to petition against the hospital’s handling. 

The authorities attempt to set them as an example of “killing the chickens to scare the monkey,” aiming at threatening and silencing the residents. 

Her family had also tried to hire a lawyer to help them but their lawyer felt much pressure and was afraid of retaliation by the government, so they stopped providing assistance.  

Withholding healthcare is a violation of human rights, but a common tactic of the Chinese government. A religious activist, Li Yongfeng, was denied medical attention despite clear signs of deteriorating health shortly after being arrested last June. Earlier this year, a Tibetan activist, A-nya Sengdra, was released from detention in critical health, which many believe was due to withholding of healthcare while in prison. 

Hoping there will be more international attention, Caiying has been posting on her X account every day and petitioning outside the Chinese Consulate General in Nagoya about her mother and sister’s situation. Due to her endless efforts, Li’s case and the Yang family’s situation attracted the attention of Mary Lawlor, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders whose office wrote to the Chinese government asking about Li’s situation concerning the allegations of torture and deprivation of proper and appropriate medical treatment. Several UN experts issued a joint statement on 5 February 2026, expressing repeated denial of medical care for Yang Li.

Amnesty International also issued a statement earlier this year to express concern about Li’s deteriorating health conditions which developed after being tortured and beaten up by the police and police-hired thugs after returning from petitioning in Beijing February 2023. Around August 2025, she was diagnosed with uremia when she was detained at the Changzhou Detention Centre in Jiangsu province and was told she would need dialysis, but the leaders of the detention centre refused to let her receive treatment. She continued to be tortured and ill-treated and the officers at the detention center also stopped providing her with the medicine that she has been taking for a long time.

Associated Press also reported about her family’s situation and the surveillance they were subjected to and Caiying initiated an online petition calling on US and Japan technology companies to stop helping China’s digital repression.

Upon hearing about what Li endured, Xu became so heartbroken that she wept with no more tears.

Caiying once asked her mother if she would blame her for speaking up for her. Xu expressed worries about Caiying’s safety. The police in Jintan and the thugs threatened Xu that they could abduct Caiying and her daughter back to China, something that has happened elsewhere as China’s transnational repression against dissidents and human rights defenders. The most famous case was the 2015 abduction of Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen and bookseller, from Thailand. To this day, he remains behind bars in China, despite repeated protests by Sweden.

Caiying is not afraid of such threats and she believes she is the only one who can speak up for her mother and her sister. Although her Xu has sadly passed away, Caiying is determined to continue her advocacy and is not afraid of the intimidation from the Chinese authorities. Xu had been crying and was worried about Li being tortured and I’ll-treated. 

She also mentioned in her report to the United Nations, the European Union and the United States, that she hopes more people, especially diplomats, can pay attention to her family’s case. It’s particularly alarming that the Chinese authorities have been applying extra-legal measures against Caiying’s mother and sister, including arbitrary detention and depriving them of necessary medical treatment, in particular kidney dialysis. But Caiying still felt that the international community was not giving enough attention, and it was disappointing. “I won’t give up. I want to continue my international advocacy for her mom and sister,” Caiying said.

She could only speak to them via FaceTime but her sister’s mobile had been taken by the authorities before so she was unsure about her phone’s safety. She reckoned her mother and sister are under surveillance. People who have been taking care of her mother and sister might have also been watching them and listening to their conversation.

“My mom, while on her nearly dying bed, held my sister’s hand when she was talking to me, telling me how she was worried about my sister and me,” Caiying said as she was sobbing. Heartbroken, Caiying wanted to impart her dying mother this final message:

“Mom, you have been working so hard for us for your whole life. I hope the cruel brain disease hasn’t given you too much pain. 

“You spent all your sleepless and weeping nights worrying about my safety. You need to forget about all these. I will help you keep a record. Justice will not end with life. No matter how difficult it is in front of us, I will continue to seek justice for you and my sister. I will continue to advocate for my sister. That’s what I can promise you.”

Patrick Poon is a board member of Tokyo-based Asian Lawyers Network and a human rights advocate, originally from Hong Kong.