Classification: Falun Gong practitioner from Gaozhou, Guangdong; sentenced to six years in prison in September 2023; reported in custody with a term running to September 25, 2028.
Wu Youqing (吴有清), born February 27, 1967, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Gaozhou, Guangdong, currently serving a six-year prison sentence imposed in September 2023 by the Maonan District Court in Maoming.
Background
Wu Youqing is a native of Gaozhou City, Maoming, Guangdong Province. She worked at a rural credit bank, from which she was dismissed during an earlier period of detention. She began practicing Falun Gong in June 1997.
The 2022 detention and six-year sentence
On the evening of September 26, 2022, Wu Youqing was seized outdoors by plainclothes domestic-security (国保) officers of the Gaozhou Public Security Bureau; she was carrying nothing with her at the time. In the early hours of September 27, more than ten officers raided her home.
She was first held at the Xinyi Detention Center in Maoming, where she staged hunger strikes to protest her detention. In mid-November 2022, weakened by the hunger strike, she was taken to hospital for emergency treatment, and on November 21 her family learned she had been transferred to the Maoming No.1 Detention Center. Her case moved through the Gaozhou and Maonan procuratorates, and on June 29, 2023, the Maonan District Court tried her case inside the detention center. Two lawyers she had retained entered not-guilty pleas on her behalf and she defended herself, asking for acquittal and release.
On September 22, 2023, the court sentenced her to six years’ imprisonment and a 20,000-yuan fine; the judgment was dated August 30, 2023, and the charge was not reported. She stated in court that she did not accept the verdict and would appeal; her family retained appellate counsel, and in November 2023 the Maoming Intermediate Court was reviewing the case. Her documented sentence term ends on September 25, 2028.
Earlier persecution (as reported)
- Labor camp: Sentenced to three years of “reeducation through labor,” during which she was reported to have been subjected to humiliating treatment by guards; the rural credit bank dismissed her while she was held.
- Prison term: Later sentenced to four years in prison. Her husband, threatened by police, sued for divorce, and she was made to sign the divorce papers while imprisoned.
After release, she was subjected to repeated monitoring and harassment by local police and neighborhood officials, the case record states.
Status
Wu Youqing is currently imprisoned, serving a six-year sentence that runs through September 25, 2028, according to the case record. The outcome of her appeal is unconfirmed.
Sources: Minghui, Guangdong edition No. 699 (December 30, 2023); Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Prisoners of Conscience database, individual record for 吴有清 (entered October 5, 2023); Rights Defense Network / 维权网, Issue 131 monthly in-custody report (August 31, 2026). Custody-condition and mistreatment details are source-attributed.
Media and documentation archive: Media and documentation archive for Wu Youqing (吴有清)