Two Guangdong Residents Sentenced for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Two Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province residents were sentenced to prison in October 2021 for practicing Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Shao Yanfang, 36, and Ms. Lai Chengmei, 57, were arrested on the evening of April 11, 2021 along with nine other Falun Gong practitioners including Ms. Tang Rongzhu, Mr. Huang Zengyou, Ms. Liu Yuxiu, Ms. Lai Lanying, Ms. Lan Qiuxiang, Mr. Deng (given name unknown), Hua (surname unknown) and two practitioners whose names were not known.

Thirty-two officers arrived in several cars and a bus to Ms. Shao’s home, when she was having dinner with her 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. When she refused to let the police in, they broke down the door and turned off her power supply several times. Her two children were terrified when the lights went on and off at their home.

The police barged in after Ms. Shao was forced to open the door. They attempted to put a black hood on her head, but were stopped by her son. Ms. Shao kept shouting in protest “Falun Dafa is good!” The police then tried to stuff her mouth with a rag, but relented under strong protest from her daughter.

Upon hearing about the incident, Ms. Shao’s husband rushed home, only to be blocked outside by the police.

The police spent four hours searching Ms. Shao’s home, confiscating her computer, printer, paper cutter, laminator, copy paper and many other office supplies. They accused her of using the equipment to produce Falun Gong materials. She was handcuffed and taken away. 

Police went to Ms. Lai’s home, handcuffed her and put a black hood on her head, before taking her away.

Both Ms. Shao and Ms. Lai were forced to undergo a comprehensive physical examination and ordered to read one and a half pages of words. They suspected that the police were recording their voices for their surveillance database. The two women were later taken to the Yangshan County Detention Center and transferred to the Yingde City Detention Center after the police submitted their cases to the Yingde City Procuratorate, which was assigned to handle Falun Gong cases in the Qingyuan region. 

Ms. Shao was sentenced to five years with a 30,000-yuan fine by the Yingde City Court on October 28, 2021. Ms. Lai received two and a half years with a 10,000-yuan fine. The status of the other nine practitioners’ cases wasn’t clear at the time of writing.

Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Lai was detained for 15 days in March 2004 and given one year of forced labor on November 11, 2011, for talking to people about Falun Gong.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Huang Guitang (黄桂棠), head of the Lianzhou City Police Department: [phone]Zhong Zhaoyong (钟兆勇), president of the Yingde City Procuratorate: [phone]Chen Shuzhong (陈树忠), president of the Yingde City Court: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province: Nine People Arrested for Their Faith Within Four Hours