Yu Chunli （于春丽） is a Falun Gong practitioner from Qingdao, Shandong Province, who was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison in October 2023, alongside her husband, Wang Guohui （王国辉）, who received four years and four months. The couple were in their early fifties at the time of sentencing.
Yu and her husband are originally from Duanjiazhuang Village in Jihongtan, a subdistrict of Qingdao’s Chengyang District. Neighbors described Yu as a kind and considerate woman. The couple’s troubles with the authorities began years before the sentence: in June 2018, around the time of an international summit in Qingdao, police detained the couple together with their son and Wang’s mother; the two elders and the son were released the next day, while Yu and Wang were held and later freed on bail payments. Over the following years the family endured repeated home searches, confiscation of books and a laptop, pressure to keep renewing bail, and harassment that cost Yu her factory job. By early 2021 the couple had been indicted and, facing a trial date, left their home.
On the evening of October 27, 2022, police from the Chengyang domestic-security unit and the Jihongtan station surrounded the couple’s rented apartment. Officers posing as building staff checking a water leak persuaded their son to open the door, then forced their way in, searched the home, and seized books, a printer, and personal items. The couple were taken to the Jihongtan police station, where they were handcuffed for more than a month and given meager food. Lawyers were repeatedly blocked from visiting them. In February 2023 both were transferred to a detention center in Qingdao.
On October 18, 2023, the Jimo District Court in Qingdao tried the couple. The hearing was brief. Yu Chunli was sentenced to four years and eight months; Wang Guohui to four years and four months. Both announced in court that they would appeal.
Yu’s documented term runs to June 2027. No release has been reported, and the outcome of the appeal has not been made public.
Status note: As of the latest verified records (2023 case reporting; 2026 prisoner tally), Yu Chunli is in custody serving her sentence. Her exact detention facility is reported inconsistently across sources and is not stated here.