(Minghui.org) An 86-year-old woman in Chenxi County, Hunan Province was admitted to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison on July 28, 2026, to serve a six-month term for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Li Yueying’s ordeal stemmed from her arrest in the first half of 2020, after Huang Mingbi, director of the Chenxi County Political and Legal Affairs Committee, saw her putting up Falun Gong posters on the street. After she was released, the police kept harassing her, and later submitted her case to the Yuanling County Procuratorate. Both Yuanling County and Chenxi County are under the administration of Huaihua City. The prosecutor called her and her family several times and intimidated them.
The prosecutor, led by police officer Hu Changsheng, went to Ms. Li’s home in March 2022 with a copy of her indictment. He ordered her to go with him to the court to close her case. She refused to comply and they left.
The Yuanling County Court sentenced Ms. Li to a six-month prison term in 2023. Details of her trial (if any) are unclear.
Ou Yuanyuan, from the Chenxi County Anti-Cult Office, harassed Ms. Li twice on November 14 and 24, 2025. She came a third time on November 26, accompanied by staffers from the Yuanling County Court. After taking photos of Ms. Li without her permission, they carried her downstairs and took her to the hospital in an ambulance for a physical exam. Her family strongly protested. She was released that evening.
The authorities arrested Ms. Li again on December 19, 2025, and took her to a hospital in Huaihua City for a physical exam. They threatened to take her into custody to serve time, and ordered her to sign an agreement to “willingly serve a six-month term.” She firmly refused to comply.
Due to the mental distress, Ms. Li experienced red face, dry mouth, and dangerously high blood pressure. She was allowed to go home in the evening.
Multiple cars from the Yuanling County Court suddenly pulled over outside Ms. Li’s home at 9 a.m. on July 8, 2026. Bailiffs emerged from the vehicles and broke into her home. They took her straight to the Huaihua City Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and transferred her to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Changsha) on July 28.
Ms. Li’s family worried whether the 86-year-old would be able to survive the harsh conditions and abuse in the prison.
Ms. Li, a retiree from the Chenxi County Fish Farm, took up Falun Gong in August 1995. Her many ailments, including a heart condition, lumbar spondylosis, high blood pressure, and gastric ulcer, all disappeared.
In November 1999, four months after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Li went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice her faith, and was arrested on Tiananmen Square. The police beat her about the head with a hard object, causing blood to stain her coat. She was taken back to Chenxi County and detained for 50 days.
Ms. Li went to Beijing to appeal again in September 2000, and was given one year in the Baimalong Forced Labor Camp in Zhuzhou City, Hunan.
Ms. Li was arrested again in December 2001, for talking to people about Falun Gong. After 15 months of detention, she was sentenced to three years and admitted to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison in the capital of Changsha.
85-Year-Old Woman Faces Six Months of Incarceration for Practicing Falun Gong