Xu Yuzhen (徐玉珍) — Person Profile
Xu Yuzhen (徐玉珍), a woman from Zaoyang City in Hubei Province, was a retired employee of the city’s urban-management bureau. She is reported to be serving an eight-year prison sentence. 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 in custody serving her term as of that date.
The case
According to an investigation notice issued by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, on May 14, 2020, Xu was seized at her home by officers of the Beicheng police station of the Zaoyang Public Security Bureau together with state-security police. Her case was handed to the Zaoyang procuratorate and then moved to the Zaoyang court. At the time the notice was written, she was being held at the Zaoyang detention center, and her daughter’s efforts to hire a lawyer for her were reported to have been obstructed.
Earlier targeting
This was not the first time Xu had been punished in connection with her beliefs. The same notice records that she was sent to re-education through labor for one year in 2004, held in administrative detention for eight days in August 2019, and subjected to long-term surveillance, repeated cuts to her wages, and house searches. On April 24, 2020, weeks before her arrest, she was summoned to a meeting with a Beicheng police officer and the urban-management bureau’s vice-director, where she was threatened with the loss of her pension; her home was searched afterward.
Status and evidentiary limits
As of August 31, 2026, Xu Yuzhen was recorded as in custody serving an eight-year sentence. The exact sentencing date and the prison where she is serving have not been publicly documented, and no formal criminal charge is named in the available sources. The 2020 arrest procedure, the obstruction-of-counsel report, and the prior-history details come from the advocacy organization’s investigation notice and are presented as reported, not as independently verified court findings. Do-not-merge: 邢玉珍 (Xing Yuzhen) of Daqing, Heilongjiang — a different person with different characters — is not this individual.
Media Profile & Archive: Xu Yuzhen (徐玉珍) — Media Profile & Archive