(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that a 69-year-old woman in Shenzhou City, Hebei Province has been sentenced to three years and nine months with a 20,000-yuan fine for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhang Xincha’s sentencing stemmed from her arrest one summer day in 2020. She went to a local police station that day to deliver Falun Gong informational materials in hopes of helping the officers there understand the illegality of the persecution. They reported her to their supervising agency, the Shenzhou City Police Department, which soon dispatched agents to arrest her. Due to her poor health, she was released on bail shortly after.
On December 13, 2021, a group of officers from the Shenzhou City Police Department arrested Ms. Zhang at home. They held her at the police department for a few hours before taking her to the Hengshui City Detention Center.
It is unclear when Ms. Zhang was indicted, tried, or sentenced. Her family only found out about her prison sentence recently and also learned that she had been admitted to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison, located in the capital city of Shijiazhuang.
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhang has been targeted for her faith. She once recounted some of the persecution she endured over the years.
Held in a Brainwashing Center in 2001
Ms. Zhang, then a shoe saleswoman, was at work at the local mall one October day in 2001, when someone rushed in and asked her to leave immediately. He said the police were raiding her home.
She heeded the advice and went into hiding. She learned later that 40 officers were dispatched to hunt for her all across town.
As the police kept pressuring her family to reveal her whereabouts, she didn’t want to further stress out her loved ones. So she turned herself in and was kept at a local brainwashing center for more than one month.
More Than Three Months of Detention in 2002
Around September 14, 2002, officers Jia Shuangwan, Yang Xiaodiu, and Zhang Yuanxiang from the Shenzhou City Police Department suddenly showed up at Ms. Zhang’s home and said that secretary Yin needed to have a talk with her. They promised her husband that they’d send her back in just a bit.
They drove Ms. Zhang to a faraway place, which she learned later was used to torture death row prisoners. They poured water on her hands and wrapped them with electrical wires connected to the electrical generator on a hand-cranked phone.
The police next turned the crank to generate electricity to shock her. Ms. Zhang felt so much pain that she sweated profusely and her hair was soaked wet. As the torture went on, the lights in the room flickered on and off, which scared the police. They then took Ms. Zhang to another room to continue the electric shock torture.
After more than ten hours (from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.) of torture, Ms. Zhang was taken to the Xushui County Police Department in Baoding City, where groups of officers took turns interrogating her. At dawn, they took her to the Xushui County Detention Center, where she was held for one month before being transferred to the Shenzhou City Detention Center.
More than one month later, the Shenzhou City Police Department moved Ms. Zhang to a brainwashing center, where she was kept for another month.
Targeted Again in 2004, Teen Son Quits School and Relative Detained
One October day in 2004, a group of people suddenly broke into Ms. Zhang’s home. She climbed up onto her roof and managed to escape. She learned later that the intruders were agents from the Hengshui City 610 Office, the Hengshui City Police Department, and the Shenzhou City Police Department.
Unable to find Ms. Zhang, the police seized her husband, leaving their son, around 13 at the time, alone at home. The next day, the family’s relatives used connections to get Ms. Zhang’s husband released.
Ms. Zhang’s husband’s workplace was far away, so he could not return home for lunch breaks as most workers and students in China did. Their son had to go to school and return home, on top of fixing lunch by himself. Some kids started bullying the boy upon finding out that his mother had been detained for practicing Falun Gong. He became withdrawn and eventually dropped out of school. He also cried all the time missing his mother, who was on the run to avoid being arrested. Several times he contemplated suicide.
Ms. Zhang’s parents and siblings endured tremendous pressure as well during her displacement, worrying about her safety and her husband and son’s well-being.
At one point, Ms. Zhang rented a relative’s home as a temporary shelter, but the police found out about it and arrested the relative. They didn’t release the relative until several months later after his family used all kinds of connections and paid the police 20,000 yuan.
Household Registration Denied by Local Police Station
A few days before the 2008 Summer Olympics Games were set to begin on August 8, the Yuke Town Police Station in charge of Ms. Zhang’s residential community suddenly denied her household registration [in China, household registration is registered with local police stations].
Ms. Zhang’s family had to use all their connections and finally got her mother-in-law’s local police station to accept her household registration.
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