(Minghui.org) Three woman in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, were sentenced to prison in December 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Guoxiu, in her 70s, was given two and a half years. Ms. Jin Yunbin, 84, and Ms. Zhang Changyun, in her 80s, were each given two years. All three were allowed to serve time outside of prison.
Their sentencing stemmed from police raids of their homes in early October 2022, before the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was set to begin on October 16 that year. The communist regime usually intensifies its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners around politically sensitive dates, in order to prevent the practitioners from raising awareness about the persecution.
When Ms. Wang returned from grocery shopping on October 7, 2022, her home was in a big mess. She thought a thief broke in. Her husband told her the police came that morning and raided their home around 10 a.m. He heard knocking on the door. When he opened it, seven or eight officers from the Huanghe Police Station barged in. They confiscated Ms. Wang’s Falun Gong books, one portrait of Falun Gong’s founder and two music players.
Three officers from the Huanghe Police Station, along with Zhang Yan and Hu Yaomei from the Xiaohepujiang Street Committee, as well as the building manager in charge of Ms. Jin’s apartment complex, broke into her home on October 8, 2022. Ms. Zhang’s home was raided by police from the same station that day.
The police did not arrest the three women in October 2022. They took them into custody separately in the first half of 2023. Ms. Wang was first seized by a plainclothes officer at the Xinglong Farmers’ Market on April 7, 2023 when the officer spotting her talking to people about Falun Gong. He took her to the Pingqiao Police Station, where she was held for many days. Ms. Guo and Ms. Jin were arrested in May 2023 and were also held in custody for about one month.
Around 2 p.m. on August 10, 2023, the three women were interrogated at their respective homes by people from the Huaxi District Court and the Huaxi District procuratorate, as well as officers from the Huanghe Police Station and the Pingqiao Police Station, and local street committees. The police threatened to sentence the three women to prison for talking to vendors about Falun Gong at the local farmers’ market. They were sentenced in December 2023.
This is not the first time that Ms. Wang and Ms. Jin have been targeted for their faith. They were both previously arrested multiple times.
Past Persecution of Ms. Jin
Ms. Jin is a retired worker of the Xiaohe District Electrical Machinery Factory in Guiyang City. Her husband, Mr. Tao Xianming, started practicing Falun Gong in 1994 and soon became healthy. Ms. Jin was inspired and began practicing. She soon recovered from severe rheumatism and a brain tumor (which had resulted in low platelet count and purple-red rashes on her body). Their son, Mr. Tao Derong, later took up Falun Gong too.
The family of three was repeatedly targeted for their faith after the persecution began in 1999. When Ms. Jin and her husband went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong around July 1999, they were arrested and taken back to Guiyang two days later. Both were held at the Xiaohe District Drug Rehabilitation Center for an unknown amount of time. After they were released, the police frequently harassed them at home or summoned them to the local police station.
An officer came to Ms. Jin’s home and ordered her to press her fingerprints on a document. When she refused and he punched her face, knocking her down to the ground. Her face immediately swelled. She was taken to a place and held with drug addicts.
Ms. Jin went to visit a friend on the night of April 28, 2022. As she was walking upstairs to her friend’s apartment, she ran into Sun Haizhou, security chief of her workplace, who was going downstairs. Sun accused her of distributing Falun Gong materials in that building and reported her to section chief Chen Dengliang of the Xiaohe District Police Department.
Chen immediately went to raid Ms. Jin’s home and arrested her husband and son. He then had people staked outside her home. As soon as she returned from visiting her friend, they barged in and raided her home again.
The family of three were interrogated at the police department. Ms. Jin refused to answer any questions and officer Wang Yuxiang punched her in the face, which became swollen. The next day she was taken to the Lannigou Detention Center, where she was held for 26 days.
Her son, Mr. Tao Derong, was taken to the Xiaohe District Rehabilitation Center. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, the guards put him in solitary confinement. They cuffed his hands to the window frame and showered him with punches and kicks.
Mr. Tao developed a mental disorder after repeated torture. Only then was he released. His parents took him to a hospital and his condition didn’t improve until more than six months later. It took another year before he was well enough to return to work.
Ms. Jin’s employer kept harassing her and her family and ordered them to renounce Falun Gong. They were forced to live away from home for more than one year.
In July 2013, local community workers came to Ms. Jin’s home and demanded to draw her and her husband’s blood. She questioned why they, who had no medical training, would want to collect samples of her blood. They had no explanation and said they were simply following their supervisors’ orders. They pressed Ms. Jin and her husband down and drew their blood with non-sterile syringes.
Ms. Jin went to the local community office to process some paperwork on April 1, 2020. The workers there forcibly took pictures of her even though the paperwork did not require photos.
The police later had Ms. Jin’s neighbor monitor her daily activities. The neighbor reported her to the police and property management on the morning of April 25, 2022 after she returned from running an errand. A group of officers soon arrived. Two policewomen restrained Ms. Jin and six male officers searched her home, confiscating her Falun Gong books, music player, DVD burner, and DVD player. One of them said he was chief Wang from the Huanghe Police Station. They took her to the Xiaohe District Police Department for interrogation and did not release her until after 11 p.m. the next day.
The endless persecution took a toll on Ms. Jin’s husband’s health. He passed away at an unknown date.
Past Persecution of Ms. Wang
Ms. Wang is a retired employee of the Southwest General Tools Factory. She was given three years of forced labor following an arrest in December 2003.
She was walking on the street on the morning of April 25, 2022 when she was suddenly seized by police. They raided her home and took her to the Xiaohe District Police Department. She was not released until the next evening.
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