(Minghui.org) Before Ms. Liang Yun took up Falun Gong, she struggled with all kinds of ailments from head to toe, including a severe heart condition, a neck problem, and joint pain. She was so desperate that she attempted suicide several times. A friend later told her about Falun Gong. She was so happy when all of her symptoms disappeared less than 20 days after she started to practice.

Similar to Ms. Liang, many other Falun Gong practitioners are grateful to the practice for curing their terminal diseases that almost took their lives. Because of Falun Gong’s tremendous health benefits, it soon attracted millions of practitioners after its public introduction in May 1992.

When it was estimated that the number of practitioners had reached 100 million, more than the number of registered Chinese Communist Party members, the regime announced in July 1999 that Falun Gong was to be eradicated from China, resulting in a systematic campaign of persecution of the practice that has now gone on for 23 years.

Like millions of other practitioners, Ms. Liang of Qujing City, Yunnan Province, was targeted for upholding her faith and has been sentenced twice, for a total of nine years. Her husband, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, was also implicated. Although he had worked for 32 years, his service record was wiped out, leaving him with no future pension benefits. He was also fired from his job, leaving the family in dire financial straits.

Ms. Liang was first arrested in March 2000 along with more than ten other practitioners. The police accused them of having an illegal gathering. While serving a five-year term in Yunnan Province No.2 Women’s Prison, she was held in solitary confinement and sometimes forced to sit on a small stool for at least 15 hours a day.

Torture reenactment: Sitting on a small stool

Ms. Liang was having lunch with her husband at home on March 3, 2017, when officers knocked on her door. They held cameras, trying to videotape her. She refused to open the door and the police didn’t leave for an hour.

A month later, with the excuse that Ms. Liang gave Falun Gong materials to officer Dong Ming, who was assigned to monitor her around the clock, the 610 Office ordered her arrest. She was given another four-year term in the Yunnan Province No.2 Women’s Prison.

Ms. Liang was again tortured for upholding Falun Gong. Because she shouted “Falun Dafa is good,” five guards beat and kicked her. Because she did the Falun Gong exercises, they sprayed pepper water on her, burning her face, head, and upper body.

She was once held in a special room where the walls were painted in blue and white strips that made people feel nauseous to see them. The room only had a mattress on the floor with no bed, chair, or pillow.

Claiming it was a necessary pandemic prevention measure, the guards sprayed disinfectant in the room every day, including on the mattress and comforter. Yet she was only allowed to change her clothes every two weeks and take a five-minute shower every week. She wasn’t allowed to wash her comforter until the strict management ended three months later. The guards restricted her restroom use to three times a day and had to apply for permission to use it at other times. She was released on May 3, 2021.