Mother of Amy Yu

(Pictured above (L) is mother Meihong Wang and daughter Amy Yu in 1993. The background is the Chinese character “love”. This is one of the few photos that Amy was able to find after the police took all the family’s belongings. (R) is Amy Yu in 2013, she spoke on behalf of her parents’ at the Zhen Shan Ren Art exhibition in Yorkshire, England.)

Case Summary

Meihong Wang / 王楣泓 – Gender: Female, Born: 1958

Zhonghai Yu / 于宗海 – Gender: Male, Born: 1957

Current status: Wang was sentenced to 4 years in May 2021

Reason for Detention: In 2020, Meihong Wang was arrested twice for talking to people on the streets of Harbin City about Falun Gong.

Past Detentions: Her parents have spent a combined 29 years behind bars.

Mrs. Wang was detained from 2003-2014, during which police officers deprived her of sleep, forced her to work all day in extremely hot temperatures, mandated her to sit on a small stool for long periods of time, and deprived her of any freedom of movement and speech. Her right knee was permanently damaged because a prison guard and a felon in her cell dragged Wang down from her bed and beat her for meditating on her bed.

Yu was detained in 1999 and imprisoned from 2001-2016. Amy was also detained in a brainwashing center when she was in primary school.

Current location: Meihong Wang is currently incarcerated in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison.

Family Residence: London

Personal Background

Mrs. Meihong Wang was a senior engineer in the City Geological Institute and an outstanding employee. Amy’s mother had sparkling eyes and dancing fingers, which dutifully bundled her daughter up for the cold northeastern weather each morning as she left for school.

Mr. Zhonghai Yu is a professional oil painter, ice sculptor, and graphic designer at his local library. He was honored several times as a model employee by the City and State Libraries. Yu was a witty and intelligent father in Amy’s memories; he would tease her, tell her stories, and teach her how to draw. He would also bring back big stacks of books from the city library where he worked, which Amy eagerly devoured. After he was released from detainment, Yu drew the waterboard torture he went through.

Their daughter Amy Minghui Yu (35) currently resides in Edmonton, London.

After elementary school, Amy was forced to grow up independently because her mother and father were both detained since the early 2000s. She left China by herself in 2010 to study fashion design at the Cambridge School of Art (ARU) and as of 2022, it has been 22 years since she last lived with her parents, and 12 since she last saw them.

In April 2021 while attending an event in the UK calling for an end to the persecution, Ms. Yu said, “I don’t know when my mother will be released. I came here today to protest the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), because my mother did not commit a crime by practicing Falun Dafa. My parents are now in their 60s. They were imprisoned for over a decade. Their lives are extremely difficult.

“I am very worried. I hope they can release my mother immediately and give her back her freedom. Stop harassing her. It is not wrong to believe in Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance.”

Timeline

July 20, 1999: First Detained
Mr. Yu was arrested that day; although he was released, he was again arrested for petitioning to the central government in Beijing for the right of freedom of religion, he was sentenced to a year of forced labor.
2001: Father Arrested and Sentenced to 15 Years
Mr. Yu was arrested for spray-painting “Falun Dafa is Good” on a wall to raise awareness in public about the persecution of his practice. Amy’s father was sentenced to 15 years.
2003: Mother Sentenced
Amy’s mother was sentenced to 11 years in 2003, for talking to people about Falun Gong.
2003-2010: Amy Visited Parents
Even though it took her 20 hours to travel to her parents, Amy spent her free time visiting her parents, who were in separate prisons in different cities. She would take the bus, the train, and then walk for miles to see her parents and talk with them, but often was denied visitations by the guards.

On some occasions where prison officials allowed her to meet her mom or dad, they never once revealed to her how severely they were being tortured and instead encouraged her to be strong. It was only after 2010, when Amy came to the U.K. to study fashion design when she learned of their injuries through other Falun Gong adherents who knew her parents.
2013: Father’s Photo Leaked

*Mr. Zonghai Yu, photo taken between 2010-201*3.

At the time this secret photo was taken of Mr. Yu in prison, visitors said beyond the injuries visible in the photo, he had been brutally beaten. His leg had been broken and his breastbone was extruding from his chest. He was also reported to have been suffering from dizziness, vision impairment, and mobility issues like walking.

2016: Parents Tried to Visit London, Refused Passports
When her father was released in 2016, two years after her mother returned to the empty home, they applied for passports in order to travel to London to visit their daughter, only to be rejected by the police and told that there is no way for them to ever get passports.
2020: Mother Arrested in Harbin City
Ms. Wang was arrested on November 23, 2020, near the Heilongjiang University for talking to people about the persecution of Falun Gong. After she was arbitrarily detained at the Haxi Police Station for 15 days, she was put on criminal detention and transferred to a detention center without her family’s knowledge.

The police attempted to have Ms. Wang’s family persuade her to give up Falun Gong so that she could avoid being sentenced, but they didn’t comply. According to her daughter, the police “[took] everything away from her, including a computer, a USB [drive], and her keys and other things.”
2021: Mother Sentenced to Four Years
Ms. Wang was indicted by the Daoli District Procuratorate on February 2, 2021. On March 30, 2021, the day before Ms. Wang’s online hearing, her lawyer Xie Yanyi went to the Daoli District Court to submit his Power of Attorney. Judge Jian Cheng, however, told lawyer Xie that he has already appointed a lawyer to represent Ms. Wang and he refused to accept Xie’s Power of Attorney.

Lawyer Xie argued that it’s illegal for the judge to reject his representation of Mrs. Wang, but on the day of the hearing, the judge insisted to have the court-appointed lawyer represent enter a guilty plea for Mrs. Wang.

Mrs. Wang protested and demanded to be represented by her own lawyer Xie, but the judge rejected her pleas and refused to allow her lawyer to attend the hearing. In May, the judge sentenced Ms. Wang to 4 years in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison.
December 2022: Held in Solitary Confinement
According to insiders, Ms. Wang is currently held in solitary confinement, and she is likely to be in a dangerous situation as prisons often use more brutal torture methods on practitioners in solitary confinement.

News & Actions

2013: MP Dobson Wrote to the UK Foreign Office
Her former MP Frank Dobson wrote to the Foreign Office about her father’s detention in 2013. The response of the Foreign Office was to reiterate the fact that it regularly raises human rights issues with the Chinese authorities through Human Rights Dialogue meetings.
2015: Published in International Business Times
In an open letter published in the International Business Times in 2015, Amy recounted, “But for more than ten years, the total time I spent with my parents was less than twenty-four hours. Countless nights I fell asleep crying and missing them, I couldn’t bear the pain of thinking about my parents’ situation and I had a huge fear that I may lose them forever like other Falun Gong kids.”
2018: Amy’s Story Released as Documentary
Candlelight, an acclaimed documentary feature, spread Amy’s story around the world. On Facebook, a short video about Amy clipped from the documentary has amassed 7.5 million views.

Amy gave an interview in 2018 to raise awareness about her parents’ case.

December 2020: U.K. Parliament Members Condemned Her Mother’s Arrest
U.K. Parliament member Jim Shannon said he was shocked to hear about Ms. Wang’s arrest. He said Ms. Wang’s ordeal and what her family has gone through offers a glimpse into the brutal persecution campaign against Falun Gong practitioners in China in the past two decades.

Another Parliament member, Rosie Duffield, said she was saddened to hear the family’s story and that she understood it’s a very difficult time for them. She has taken up the case with the U.K. Foreign Secretary.

In response to the question about Ms. Wang’s arrest brought up by the House of the Lords on December 7, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office replied on December 21 that “We are aware of the reported abduction of Meihong Wang in Harbin, China. We remain deeply concerned about the persecution of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners and others on the grounds of their religion or belief in China. The freedom to practise, change or share ones faith or belief without discrimination or violent opposition is a human right that all people should enjoy. We regularly raise our concerns about the human rights situation with the Chinese authorities, and will continue to do so.”
April 2021: Amy Spoke at a Public Rally
While attending an event in the U.K. in April 2021 calling for an end to the persecution, Ms. Yu said, “I don’t know when my mother will be released. I came here today to protest the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) because my mother did not commit a crime in practicing Falun Dafa. My parents are now in their 60s. They were imprisoned for over a decade. Their lives are extremely difficult.”
2021: Interview with New Tang Dynasty Television
Amy confessed in an interview with NTDTV that she called the police station responsible for her mother’s arrest, “they didn’t give me any clear information or any clear reasons. They just told me, ‘you don’t talk with a policeman about law or regulations.’”

Take Action

1. Contact Amy’s Representatives (London Borough of Camden)

MP Keir Starmer

Email: keir.starmer.constituency@parliament.uk
Phone: +44 20 7388 7862

Contact her borough councillers through the Councillor directory.

2. Share Amy’s Story on Social Media

3. Sign Amy‘s Petition on Change.org

Calling for the release of Meihong Wang, mother of UK resident, currently detained in China

4. Send an encouraging letter directly to Mrs. Meihong Wang

People who have survived Chinese prisons and escaped to the U.S. attest to the enormous difference it can make to hear from the outside world directly. It lifts the spirits of those wrongfully detained, and shocks local officials, making them wary of participating further in persecution.

You can send cards directly to Mrs. Meihong Wang to this address:

黑龙江省女子监狱
Heilongjiang Women’s Prison
南岗区学府路 387号邮编：150069
Xuefu Road, Nangang District, 150069,
China