Zhou Yuzhen (周玉祯) — Media Profile & Archive
This archive preserves the source record behind the Zhou Yuzhen (周玉祯) profile: Minghui reporting on the April 2024 arrest and the September 2024 four-and-a-half-year sentence, plus earlier-term records and independent database documentation, with provenance and limitations noted. Sources are graded; allegations remain attributed rather than stated as fact.
Minghui.org — “Liaoning Woman Given Third Prison Term for Practicing Falun Gong” (September 21, 2024)
(Opened and read in full: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2024/9/21/220949p.html). The first detailed report of the 4.5-year sentence: arrest on April 30, 2024 by Bao’an Police Station officers; Guta District Domestic Security Division to Linghai City Procuratorate to Linghai City Court; prior detention history (Masanjia 2004–2006, prison terms July 2013–July 2017 and 2019–2023); personal background (first encountered Falun Gong in detention in 2001; obtained Zhuan Falun on October 18, 2001). Source grade: practitioner-affiliated news site; verified (opened and read).
Minghui.org — “71-Year-Old … Serving Third Prison Sentence for Her Faith, Pension Suspended Since November 2016” (March 25, 2025)
(Opened and read in full: http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2025/3/25/225970.html). The latest dated status evidence: she is serving the 4.5-year term at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison (exact admission date unknown); the social security bureau suspended her pension in November 2016 and it was never reinstated; she worked as an aide after her 2017 release. Note: the headline says “Jilin” — an apparent typo; the body consistently identifies her as a Jinzhou City, Liaoning resident. Source grade: practitioner-affiliated news site; verified (opened and read).
Minghui.org — “After 5.5 Years Behind Bars, Liaoning Woman Arrested Again for Her Faith” (May 21, 2019)
(Opened and read in full: http://en.Minghui.org/html/articles/2019/5/21/177704.html). Reports her fourth arrest in late April 2019 for distributing Falun Gong materials; recounts her Masanjia labor-camp detention (June 2004 – January 2006) and her July 2013 arrest alongside Qu Wei and Wang Yanqiu — both of whom later died. Source grade: practitioner-affiliated news site; verified (opened and read).
Minghui.org — “Additional Persecution News from China – January 26, 2014” (February 3, 2014)
(Opened and read in full: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2014/2/3/145163p.html). The contemporaneous record of the 2014 conviction: sentenced to four years by the Guta Court on January 24, 2014, with an appeal noted. Source grade: practitioner-affiliated news site; verified (opened and read).
Minghui.org — “65-Year-Old Liaoning Woman Is the 24th Falun Gong Practitioner Sentenced by the Same Court in 2024” (January 21, 2025)
(Opened and read in full: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2025/1/21/223764p.html). Lists her as case #13: 71, Jinzhou City, sentenced to four and a half years around mid-September 2024 after an April 2024 arrest; places her case within the Linghai City Court’s 2024 sentencing wave against Jinzhou-area practitioners. Source grade: practitioner-affiliated news site; verified (opened and read).
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom — Religious Prisoners of Conscience database, “Zhou Yuzhen” (accessed October 8, 2026)
(Opened and read in full: https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/zhou-yuzhen). The database entry lists Zhou Yuzhen: female, Jinzhou, Falun Gong, detained April 2019, sentenced to four years in July 2019 for distributing religious materials; reports of torture: yes; sentence “should have ended in April 2023”; previously spent five and a half years in prison. Note: the entry does not yet reflect the 2024 sentence. Source grade: U.S. government commission; verified (opened and read).
Uphold Justice — “Investigative Report on the Persecution of Falun Gong by Li Meishan” (December 2020)
(Opened and read in full: https://www.UpholdJustice.org/node/506). Documents the July 2013 abduction of Zhou and others by Jinzhou police under National Security Brigade captain Li Meishan; states that officer Li Yushan beat Zhou in the detention center, and that Zhou and Wang Yanqiu were both sentenced to four years. Note: the report names a “Ms. Zhou Yuxi” among the three arrested — a probable transcription variant of Zhou Yuzhen’s name in that passage; treated as the same person and flagged here. Source grade: independent documentation project; verified (opened and read).
维权网 — August 2026 monthly report, Issue 131 (August 31, 2026)
维权网《中国大陆在押政治犯、良心犯月度报告（2026年8月31日）第131期（共1638人）, mirrored in English and Chinese. Lists 周玉祯 / “Zhou Yuzhen” in the “Sentenced to 4 years and 6 months, 72 people” band. The report supplies no biographical detail beyond the sentence and custody status; it is the source for her classification as in custody as of August 2026. Source grade: monitoring organization; single-source roster fact.
Source conflicts and limitations
The exact date of the 2024 sentencing is reported only as “around mid-September 2024”; the exact date of her admission to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison is unknown. Dating of the 2019–2023 term varies slightly across sources (arrest April 2019 per USCIRF and the March 2025 Minghui report; “September 2019 – September 2023” in the September 2024 Minghui report) — all agree on an April 2019 arrest and a four-year term; the September date in one article appears to be an error. Accounts of torture and abuse in detention are source-attributed (Minghui.org, Uphold Justice) and have no independent or official corroboration; no PRC court judgments or state-media coverage of any of her three prison terms were found. Nothing in the record establishes her current condition or exact whereabouts beyond the March 2025 report and the August 2026 roster listing. USCIRF’s “sentence should have ended in April 2023” covers the 2019 term and must not be presented as covering the 2024 sentence. Consulate / official-source check: no PRC court judgment, procuratorate notice, or state-media coverage located; no consular or diplomatic record surfaced. She must not be conflated with 周玉珍 (different names), and the wrong-person search hit 周玉蔻 (Taiwan media figure) is excluded.
Person profile: Zhou Yuzhen (周玉祯)