Yao Yufen is a Falun Gong practitioner from Baishan City, Jilin Province, who is serving a four-year prison term imposed in late 2024.
Yao, reported to be 66 years old (one report describes her as in her 70s — the discrepancy is unresolved), began practicing Falun Gong in 1997 after years of serious illness, according to the account published by Minghui, a Falun Gong-affiliated reporting site. She had previously been detained for her faith: in May 2001 she was arrested at home after being reported for saying “Falun Dafa is good,” held for nearly seven weeks, and given two years of forced labor; she was also detained briefly in 2012 and again in November 2014.
Around late 2024, Yao was sentenced to four years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. The circumstances of her arrest, indictment, and trial have not been publicly reported. She is held in Cell Seven of the Eighth Division of the Jilin Province Women’s Prison. According to Minghui’s reporting, a fellow inmate, Dai Yu — herself serving a twelve-year term for fraud — was instructed by guards to monitor Yao and subjected her to prolonged sitting torture, sleep deprivation, beatings, and deprivation of food, water, and bedding.
Minghui is affiliated with Falun Gong, and its accounts have not been independently corroborated; the details of Yao’s sentence and treatment are reported by that source alone. No official Chinese record of her case has been located. The Chinese-character form of her name has not been independently verified.
Media archive: Yao Yufen — Media Archive