Wang Jingmei · Full chronicle and history

The film When Night Falls, directed by Shanghai-based director Ying Liang, tells from the perspective of Yang Jia's mother, Wang Jingmei, her experience of being illegally confined in a psychiatric hospital after her son's arrest and her subsequent efforts on his behalf. The film was screened at the Jeonju International Film Festival and the Locarno Film Festival in 2012, where Ying Liang won the Best Director award at Locarno, after which he left Shanghai following threats of arrest.

November 26, 2010 marked the second anniversary of Yang Jia’s execution. His mother, Wang Jingmei, traveled to Beijing’s Futian Cemetery to pay her respects, and the authorities deployed police to monitor her. Radio Free Asia reported that Yang Jia is regarded by many as a victim of China’s judicial system.

On April 5, 2010, Qingming Festival, Wang Jingmei went to Beijing Futian Cemetery to pay respects to her son. Large numbers of police and plainclothes officers surrounded the cemetery, several people filmed the mourners with video cameras, and more than a dozen police cars were parked nearby. The police told Wang Jingmei that Yang Jia's grave would receive "special attention."

After Yang Jia was executed, his mother Wang Jingmei opened a blog on Sina. Her first post wrote of the grief of losing her son. The blog was soon forced to close. Ai Weiwei cited this case in a blog roundtable discussion in January 2009 to illustrate the power of individual voices, and how afraid the authorities are.

Three days before Yang Jia was executed, Wang Jingmei, who had been held for four months, was brought by police from a psychiatric hospital in Beijing to a detention center in Shanghai to visit her son. It was the first time mother and son had met since the incident, and also the last.

On November 21, 2008, the Supreme People's Court issued a criminal ruling approving the death sentence of Yang Jia. It was only after 7 p.m. on November 25 that Wang Jingmei received this ruling, with only one night left before the execution.

On November 9, 2008, Yang Jia's aunt, Wang Jingrong, went to a psychiatric hospital under the arrangement of Beijing police to see her younger sister Wang Jingmei, who was being held there. This was the first time the family had seen Wang Jingmei since she disappeared four months earlier. She had been confined at the Compulsory Treatment Management Division of the Beijing Public Security Bureau, known externally as Ankang Hospital.

On October 20, 2008, the Shanghai High People's Court issued Criminal Ruling (2008) Hu Gao Xing Zhong Zi No. 131, rejecting Yang Jia's appeal, upholding the first-instance death sentence, and reporting it to the Supreme People's Court for review and approval. When the ruling was issued, Yang Jia's mother, Wang Jingmei, was still confined in a psychiatric hospital.

The night after the Yang Jia case occurred, his mother Wang Jingmei was first taken to the Datun Police Station in Chaoyang District, and was then sent by Shanghai and Beijing police to the Ankang Psychiatric Hospital of the Beijing Public Security Bureau in Shunyi District and forcibly detained. Her family only learned of her whereabouts four months later, and legal professionals pointed out that there was no regulatory basis whatsoever for sending her to a psychiatric hospital.

On October 16, 2007, the inspection squad of the Zhabei Branch went to Beijing to visit Yang Jia and his mother, Wang Jingmei. Yang Jia demanded that the police pay 10,000 yuan in compensation. The inspection squad did not agree, nor did it discipline any police officer.