Two Women Detained for Their Faith, in Serious Condition after Days of Hunger Strike

(Minghui.org) Two Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province residents went on a hunger strike to protest their arbitrary detention after they were arrested in early May 2022 for practicing Falun Gong.

It has been reported that Ms. Kou Lirong and Ms. Ma Yinhuan are in serious condition. About six days into their arrest, they were transferred to a hospital, where they have been receiving IV drips and undergoing physical examination every day for at least 10 days.

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

Ms. Kou was arrested at work on May 9, 2022. Officers of the High-tech Industrial Development Zone Police Station accused her of hanging up a Falun Gong banner on a tree on May 1. They ransacked her home and also arrested Ms. Ma, who lives in the same neighborhood.

Both practitioners were taken to the Huanghedadao Police Station. They refused to answer the police’s questions and held hunger strikes to protest the persecution.

According to an insider, both women were transferred to a hospital under the administration of Shijiazhuang City Supervision Center around May 15 and the authorities are planning to take them to the Shijiazhuang City No. 2 Detention Center after 21 days of quarantine.

Officers Wei Bingcun, Cheng Zhenying and Guo Yihong of the High-tech Industrial Development Zone Police Station and Huanghedadao Police Station are pursuing prosecution of the two practitioners. Their families have received their criminal detention notices from officer Cheng.

Past Persecution of Ms. Kou

Ms. Kou, 50, used to teach at the Huayao Elementary School. She took up Falun Gong in October 1995. Since then, her persistent low-grade fever caused by rhinitis and severe anemia disappeared without medical intervention. She is grateful to Falun Gong for improving her health. When the communist regime ordered the persecution four years later, she refused to give it up and has since been subjected to non-stop arrests and harassment.

In July 1999, shortly after the onset of the persecution, Ms. Kou went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was arrested and taken to the Fengtai Stadium, where many practitioners who also went to Beijing to appeal were detained. The practitioners were left sitting on the ground next to each other under the scorching sun. The guards didn’t allow them to use the restroom. They also collected their personal information.

After Ms. Kou was released and returned home, her school didn’t allow her to teach anymore, but arranged for her to work in a factory managed by the school.

Ms. Kou returned to Beijing in October 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong again. Before she entered the National Appeals Office, she was arrested by staff members of the Shijiazhuang government waiting there and taken to the Jingzhou Detention Center, where she was held for 15 days.

Ms. Kou went to the Beijing two more times, in February and July 2000, respectively. She was arrested and detained both times.

While reading Falun Gong books with several other practitioners in March 2001, Ms. Kou and the other practitioners were arrested by 30 police officers who suddenly broke in. The practitioners were held at the Shijiazhuang No.1 Detention Center for a month. Ms. Kou held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards handcuffed and shackled her. They force fed her and injected her with drugs that damaged her nervous system. She constantly felt dizzy and was emaciated.

On April 27, 2001, only a few weeks after she returned home, the police arrested her at home and took her to Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp. Upon arrival, she was surrounded by several male guards holding electric batons and rubber clubs. They beat her and knocked her down. They then brought her to another room and cuffed her hands to the two ends of heating pipes. She held another hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force fed in a chair. She managed to escape from the labor camp one night.

While in displacement, Ms. Kou ran into her ex-husband, a guard of Hebei Province No. 4 prison, in July 2001. He arrested her and reported it to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labor Camp. She was taken back there and deprived of sleep for many days. She held a hunger strike again and was taken to the hospital.

Ms. Kou’s next arrest was in mid-November 2002 in Taiyuan City in the neighboring Shanxi Province (about 140 miles from Shijiazhuang). She was held at the Wanbolin Detention Center. She again started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Fifteen days later, the guards ordered the inmates to beat and verbally abuse her. She was then taken to the police hospital, where she continued the hunger strike for another month. She wasn’t released until she was on the verge of death.

Ms. Kou was harassed multiple times at home between 2014 and 2015. Her family members were also threatened.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Cheng Zhenying (程振英), officer of Huanghedadao Police Station: [phone]Yin Chengmao (殷成茂), head of High-tech Industrial Development Zone Police Station: [phone]Zhang Zhenjian (张振键), director of High-tech Industrial Development Zone Domestic Security Office: [phone]

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