Wu Yan, the Primary Instigator of the Persecution of Falun Gong in Liaoning Women’s Prison

(Minghui.org) The Liaoning Women’s Prison consists of two separate facilities, the First Women’s Prison and the Second Women’s Prison. Both operate as parallel entities under the Provincial Prison Administration Bureau and are located next to each other.

Currently, the persecution and detention of Falun Gong practitioners within the Liaoning prison system take place primarily in Ward 12 of the First Women’s Prison and across various wards within the Second Women’s Prison.

The prison system’s persecution strategies against Falun Gong practitioners frequently shift. Recently, illegally sentenced practitioners from Shenyang, Benxi, Yingkou, and Huludao have mostly been sent to Ward 12 of the First Women’s Prison for forced “transformation.” Meanwhile, practitioners from Dalian, Jinzhou, Tieling, and Dandong have largely been sent to different wards in the Second Women’s Prison.

Wu Yan, the former head of Ward 12 at the First Women’s Prison, is one of the key figures responsible for the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners within the entire prison system. She held several critical positions, such as sub-ward head, deputy head of Ward 11, deputy chief of the Prison Administration Section, and deputy director of the Inmate Visitation Center. She was repeatedly promoted based on her “100% transformation rate.”

Ward 11 (for the elderly and disabled) and Ward 12 (for intensive brainwashing and rehabilitation) are wards where the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners is particularly severe. During her tenure, Wu Yan has actively implemented the CCP’s persecution policies.

Since assuming the role of head of Ward 12 in late 2020, Wu Yan became the primary driving force behind the prison’s “technical transformation” efforts. Alongside physical torture, she intensified psychological persecution, devising a series of “soft-blade” tactics designed to break the human spirit. Initially, she personally led prison guards in conducting face-to-face “transformation” sessions, reviewing outcomes, and distilling “best practices.” She trained teams of guards and inmates. Once this systematic mechanism of persecution was fully operational within Ward 12, she shifted to operating from behind the scenes.

Wu Yan was appointed the head of Ward 9 in September 2023. During the first half of 2024, the Liaoning Provincial Prison Administration heavily publicized her so-called “achievements” from her tenure of less than a year in that role, pushing the story to online headlines. Wu Yan quietly transferred to the role of Political Division Director at the Second Women’s Prison in 2025.

The Political Division focuses on areas such as “building the prison guard workforce,” “ideological and political education,” “supervision of law enforcement and management,” and “publicity and training.” Given Wu Yan’s career trajectory and her actions, the prison authorities’ objective in appointing her to this position is self-evident.

Wu Yan: Female, born in December 1984. Secretary of the CPC Branch. First-Class Police Inspector (Police ID: 2105166)Phone: [phone]