Li Xueyi (李学贻) is a Falun Gong practitioner from Linxia City, Gansu Province. In April 2024 it was reported that he had been sentenced to three and a half years in prison by a court in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, following his detention in March 2023. His case record states that he had been subjected to repeated detention and mistreatment for his religious practice since he was a high-school student.
Early persecution
Li Xueyi’s documented history of detention begins in 2000. On March 22, 2000, while in his final year at Linxia Middle School, he was taken from his home by Linxia City police and held at the city police department; on the third day, an officer struck him across the face, causing severe and lasting hearing loss. In 2002, while attending university in Xi’an, he was forced to abandon his studies and leave home; on June 10, 2002, he was detained in Yongjing County and subjected to mistreatment at the county detention center before being assigned one year of forced labor, served outside the camp.
On January 16, 2006, Li was detained by Dengjiapo police station officers in Xi’an and held for 45 days at the Yanta District Detention Center, where reporting describes beatings, cold-water dousing in winter conditions, forced labor, and sleep deprivation. He was then sent to the Zaozihe Forced Labor Camp in Baoji for one year. On June 28, 2011, while working as an engineer on a real-estate project in Xi’an, he was detained by police from his hometown in Linxia; after six months of detention, the Linxia County Court sentenced him to four years, and he was transferred to Tianshui Prison on January 9, 2012.
The 2023 case
Li Xueyi was working at the Yushen Industrial Park in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, when he was detained at the end of March 2023 after distributing Falun Gong informational materials. He and a co-worker, fellow practitioner Wei Suichun, were reported by a member of the public; police detained both men at the industrial park on April 1, 2023. The Yuyang District Procuratorate approved their arrests on May 9, 2023. In April 2024 it was reported that Li Xueyi had been sentenced to three and a half years by the Yulin City Court. The charge was not specified in the available reporting. Wei Suichun’s case status was reported as unclear at that time.
Family
Li Xueyi’s father, Li Jiankui, a retired worker of the nuclear-industry geology 212 brigade, is also a Falun Gong practitioner who has been repeatedly detained. Reporting states that he suffered a stroke as a result of mistreatment in custody with lasting effects, was detained again on November 25, 2020, and was serving a prison term at Lanzhou Prison.
Current status
According to the case record, Li Xueyi was held at the Yuyang District Detention Center in Yulin and was reported to be slated for transfer to Weinan Prison in Shaanxi to serve his sentence, which ran through September 30, 2026. No independently verified information about his release or current whereabouts is available. (As of October 10, 2026, his reported sentence term has ended; release has not been verified and is not asserted here.)
Sources
The case record identifies Li Xueyi as a practitioner from Linxia, Gansu, detained in Yulin in 2023 and sentenced to three and a half years. The biographical and case details above come from practitioner-affiliated reporting (Chinese and English editions) and a human-rights case database; the charge was not disclosed in the sources reviewed.
Media archive: Media archive for Li Xueyi (李学贻)