Xu Na (许那) — Person Profile
Xu Na (许那), born November 8, 1968, is a Beijing artist and poet, and a long-time Falun Gong practitioner. As a student at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute (now the Communication University of China), she took part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. In January 2022, the Dongcheng People’s Court sentenced her to eight years in prison. The Rights Defense Network’s (维权网) monthly political-prisoners report (Issue 131, August 31, 2026) lists her in its 8-year-sentence band, confirming she remains recorded in custody as of that date.
The case
On July 19, 2020, Beijing public security officials detained 13 Falun Gong practitioners, including Xu Na, accusing them of sharing photographs of Beijing street scenes during the COVID-19 pandemic with a publication associated with Falun Gong. Authorities also seized Falun Gong-related materials from the practitioners’ residences. In December 2021, her original lawyer was disbarred, partly in connection with social-media posts he made in support of Falun Gong practitioners’ rights.
In January 2022, the Dongcheng People’s Court sentenced Xu Na to eight years in prison and fined her 20,000 yuan for “organizing or using a cult to undermine implementation of the law” (Article 300 of the Criminal Law). The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom records the sentencing date as January 14, 2022; other reporting gives January 16, 2022 — the discrepancy is preserved here. Her appeal was rejected by the Beijing Second Intermediate Court on May 18, 2023.
Earlier targeting
Xu Na was first sentenced to five years in prison in 2001 in connection with her Falun Gong activities, and served that term until 2006. In January 2008, she and her husband, the musician Yu Zhou, were detained in Beijing ahead of the Olympic Games; eleven days later, Yu Zhou died in custody. Xu Na was sentenced to three more years in prison in November 2008, and released in 2011. Amnesty International designated her a prisoner of conscience in a 2008 urgent action, citing the risk of torture.
Status and evidentiary limits
As of August 31, 2026, Xu Na was recorded as in custody serving an eight-year sentence, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2026 profile lists her status as not released. However, her current detention facility is not independently confirmed: in 2024, the Falun Dafa Information Center reported that she had been removed from Beijing Women’s Prison and that her exact whereabouts were unknown. No current facility is stated here. The circumstances of Yu Zhou’s 2008 death are disputed — Xu Na believes he was killed; the authorities’ account differed — and only attributed statements are published. Do-not-merge: 许静波 (Xu Jingbo) — a different Issue 131 entry in the 5-years-6-months group, from Siping, Jilin — is not this person.
Media Profile & Archive: Xu Na (许那) — Media Profile & Archive