53-Year-Old Jiangxi Woman Sentenced to 3.5 Years, Denied Family Visits Since Her Arrest in July 2023

(Minghui.org) A 53-year-old resident of Yushan County, Jiangxi Province, was sentenced to three and a half years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Zhu Lanhui was arrested at home on July 13, 2023, by over ten agents from various agencies in Yushan County, including the Domestic Security Division, the 610 Office, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and the street committee. The police received a tip that someone had distributed Falun Gong flyers somewhere and identified her by searching footage taken by the surveillance cameras. Her computer was confiscated, though it was later returned.

Captain Luo ([phone]) of the Yushan County Domestic Security Division took Ms. Zhu to the Shangrao City Detention Center. Shangrao oversees Yushan County.

Ms. Zhu held a hunger strike for over ten days and became very weak. She weighed only 66 pounds, and the detention center guards force-fed her milk and gave her IV fluids.

Her family spent over 10,000 yuan on a lawyer, but the lawyer entered a guilty plea for her. She was sentenced to three and a half years at an unknown date. Her family, who had never been allowed to see her in the detention center, only recently learned of her wrongful conviction and prison transfer, but was not told the exact dates of these events. They called the prison (exact name unknown) to request visits with her, but were told that a meeting would be granted only after she renounced Falun Gong. An insider revealed that Ms. Zhu suffered foot pain for unknown reason.

This is not the first time that Ms. Zhu, a cashier at the Sanqingshan Organic Food Company, has been targeted for her faith. She was previously arrested by officers Yuan Bin and Ding Shulin at around 8 a.m. on March 22, 2012. They confiscated her computer, cell phone, and a few magazines bearing Falun Gong information. About two hours later, someone from the Shangrao City 610 Office came to the Yushan County Police Department to interrogate her. She was then taken to the Yushan County Detention Center, where agents from the 610 Offices in Shangrao City and Yushan County interrogated her many more times. They ordered her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong, but she said no each time.

Ms. Zhu was then given one and a half years of forced labor and transferred to the Nanchang City Women’s Labor Camp on April 23, 2012. The guards there did not allow her to take showers for long stretches of time, including during hot summer when they also forced her to do military drills. One day in 2013, the guards hung her up after discovering she possessed some paper and pens. The inmates assigned to watch her also forced her to stand for long hours when she refused to comply with their demands.

The communist regime announced on November 15, 2013 to be abolishing its labor camp system. The Nanchang City Women’s Labor Camp was soon disbanded and moved everyone to the Jiangxi Province Rehabilitation Center in May 2014. Ms. Zhu was held there until her term expired around late October 2014.