Hongan County, Hubei Province: Three Arrested for Distributing Materials about Their Faith, Two Sentenced

(Minghui.org) Two women in Baliwan Town, Hongan County, Hubei Province, Ms. Cheng Lianlian and Ms. Zhang Guiying, were arrested on August 21, 2021, after being reported for handing out fliers about Falun Gong, a meditation practice that has been persecuted in China since July 1999.

Baliwan Town Police Station officers ransacked Ms. Cheng and Ms. Zhang’s homes the day after their arrests. All their Falun Gong books and literature were confiscated as evidence. The officers also took a printer, laptop, USB disc, and printing paper from Ms. Cheng’s home.

Although Ms. Zhang was released two days later, the police arrested her again two days after that for downloading Falun Gong information.

Through Ms. Zhang’s chat history on her cellphone and surveillance videos, the police located and arrested a third practitioner, Ms. Lu Hongfang, days later. Her home was ransacked as well.

All three women were held in Tuanfeng Detention Center in Huanggang City. Ms. Cheng was recently sentenced to seven years in prison and Ms. Zhang to three years. It’s not clear at this time if Ms. Lu has been sentenced.

Ms. Cheng: Amazing Changes after Practicing Falun Gong

Ms. Cheng, a 49-year-old former police officer, grew up in a wealthy family. Spoiled by her parents, she was bossy, short-tempered, deceitful, arrogant, and disrespectful to her parents. She also did not get along with others at work.

Her then-boyfriend Mr. Wang Jue practiced Falun Gong and gave her a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong’s teaching. She finished reading the book in one go. Comparing her behavior with the principles in the book, she felt ashamed. She decided to change and took up the practice in March 1998.

Soon her character improved: She respected her parents, she was friendly, and she stopped lying and bullying others. Her migraines disappeared. She later married Mr. Wang and they had a son, Wang Xiaoxiao.

Ms. Cheng described the joy she experienced with the practice: “I lived a life without purpose before I took up Falun Gong. I looked glamorous on the outside, but deep inside, I felt anxious and restless. Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Gong) scooped me out of Hell and guided me back on the righteous track. Because of Falun Gong, I had a warm and happy family.”

Due to Falun Gong’s enormous popularity, Jiang Zemin, the former Chinese leader, launched the persecution of this ancient mind-body discipline on July 20, 1999. Ms. Cheng and her family were targeted.

The police ransacked her home and arrested her many times. She lost her job and she, her husband, and their son had to move frequently to avoid persecution. When their 11-year-old son died in a car accident, her husband, who had already endured tremendous pressure due to the persecution, mentally collapsed and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Ms. Cheng then went back to her parents’ home in Baliwan Town and worked in a supermarket. Baliwan Town Police Station officers did not leave her alone—they often harassed her and then arrested her in August 2021, resulting in her latest sentencing.

Below is Ms. Cheng’s own account of the persecution her family has suffered. It’s part of her criminal complaint filed with China’s Supreme People’s Court on July 1, 2015, suing Jiang Zemin for initiating the persecution that destroyed her family.

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On July 20, 1999, the day the persecution started, my husband and a dozen other practitioners went to Hubei provincial government in Wuhan to tell the officials that the persecution was wrong. After they returned to Xiangyang City, Dongfeng Motor Police officers arrested and detained them. The police tried to brainwash them with information that slandered Falun Gong. My husband was looking for a new job at that time, but he couldn’t find one because no one dared to hire a Falun Gong practitioner.

Officers Hu Xiaofang and Liao Jingkai with Dongfeng Motor Police arrested me at least eight times. They didn’t just harass me, they also ransacked my house three times and my parents’ five times.

I went to Beijing to clarify the truth in September 1999. After I returned, Hu and other officers arrested me. They interrogated me in the police station while I held my six-month-old toddler in my arms. One time they wanted me to give information about other practitioners and asked me where I got the Falun Gong fliers. Liao threatened to throw me into Shayang Prison if I did not comply. I said nothing. To put pressure on me, they broke into my parents’ home and ransacked it.

My in-laws are both government officials. Because they believed in the Chinese Communist Party’s slanderous propaganda about Falun Gong and feared the persecution, they often pressured me and my husband to renounce the practice. We had to take our then three-year-old son to live elsewhere to escape the persecution.

To find us, Liao many times went to where my brother and his wife worked to harass them and terrorized my elderly parents. Because of my practice, the teachers and students discriminated against my brother’s son at school, which traumatized the young boy.

Hu and Liao seized me when I returned to Xiangyang City. They ransacked my parents’ home. Terrified, my mother’s heart problems recurred, and my father’s hair turned gray overnight.

We moved from place to place. My husband and I had to work hard to stay afloat and did not have much time to look after our only son. A car hit him one day when neither of us was around, and he died at the age of 11.

The authorities monitored us, arrested us, and ransacked our homes again and again over the years. The mental and financial stress plus being discriminated in all aspects of life were hard enough to bear, but the death of our son was the last straw for my husband. He suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted to Heze City No.3 People's Hospital in Shandong Province.

My life since the persecution began was filled with tribulations and sadness. I can only remember some of it. It wasn’t just me—my family members also endured unspeakable difficulties because of the persecution. Now I have nothing but a broken family. I hope the prosecutors and judges can bring Jiang Zemin and members of the 610 Office to justice.