(Minghui.org) Two women in their 70s were sentenced on June 9, 2022 for talking to people about the persecution of their faith in Falun Gong. 

Ms. Tong Suqing is a 77-year-old native of Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, and Ms. Liu Shaozhen is a 73-year-old native of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province. They both currently reside in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province to help care for their respectively grandchildren.

They went to shop for groceries together on May 13, 2019. Upon seeing two food delivery drivers eating lunch at the parking lot, they went up and talked to them about Falun Gong. One of the drivers, Lin, reported them, resulting in their arrests. Both of their Falun Gong books and informational materials were confiscated. 

Ms. Tong was released on bail two days later due to her high blood pressure. Ms. Liu was released on bail after a month of detention.

Ms. Tong was reported again for talking to people about Falun Gong in March 2020 and arrested. She had extremely high blood pressure after one night of detention at the police station. Two days after she was released on bail, the police informed her children that the Nanshan District Procuratorate had indicted her and that she wasn’t allowed to leave Shenzhen, but had to be prepared to be summoned at anytime. 

Meanwhile, the police also submitted Ms. Liu’s case to the Nanshan District Procuratorate, which indicted her and moved her case to the Nanshan District Court as well. 

The Nanshan District Court summoned Ms. Tong several times, but she insisted that she didn’t violate any law in talking to people about her faith and refused to cooperate. The judge ordered the police to arrest her on January 17, 2022 and held her at the local detention center. 

The judge announced the verdicts against the two practitioners on June 9, 2022. Ms. Tong was sentenced to 1.5 years with a 3,000-yuan fine and Ms. Liu was given eight months with one year probation and a 2,000-yuan fine.

Ms. Tong is a retired medical personnel of the railroad system in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province. She used to suffer severe migraines, frozen shoulder and lumbar vertebral bone hyperplasia, all of which disappeared after she took up Falun Gong. 

Prior to her latest sentencing, she has been arrested twice, on March 1, 2006 and August 22, 2010, for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was forced to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong against her will at the brainwashing center following her second arrest.