(Minghui.org) Ms. Xia Mingjin’s family learned in late May 2024 that she had been admitted to the Jiangxi Province Women’s Prison after being secretly 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. Xia Mingjin, a 59-year-old resident of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, was arrested on September 19, 2023 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The arresting officers from the Qingyunpu Domestic Security Division raided her home and took her to the Nanchang City First Detention Center. Her family was never notified of her subsequent indictment, trial, sentencing, or prison transfer. They only recently found out about her incarceration from an insider.

This is not the first time that Ms. Xia has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong. She was given one year of forced labor in 2011 and sentenced to two years following her arrest in 2018. After she was released from prison in 2020, she still faced constant harassment from the police. Prior to her latest arrest, she was held at a brainwashing center for ten days before being released on June 25, 2021.

Taking Up Falun Gong

Ms. Xia previously suffered from severe sinusitis and was told that there was no cure except for surgery—and even that was not a guarantee. In December 1997, she heard her husband’s colleagues talking about Falun Gong and decided to give it a try. She soon recovered.

Out of fear, Ms. Xia gave up practicing after the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999. Her health kept deteriorating in the years that followed and she also developed severe heart problems. She often had tightness in her chest and would gasp for air. She decided to resume practicing Falun Gong in 2007 and soon regained her health. Ms. Xia became steadfast in her faith and started to raise awareness of the persecution, leading to several arrests.

One Year and 17 Days of Forced Labor

Ms. Xia was arrested for distributing informational DVDs about Falun Gong in a village on September 25, 2011. She was taken to the Nanchang County Detention Center. The police went to her son’s home four days later to harass him.

Ms. Xia was given one year of forced labor and transferred to Jiangxi Women’s Forced Labor Camp on October 30, 2011. As soon as she entered the labor camp, the guards made her stand for three days and two nights. After that, two guards instructed inmates to drag her around the lobby. She was not allowed to close her eyes or the inmates would flick her eyelids with their fingers. By the end of the torture, Ms. Xia’s legs were severely swollen and both her eyes were red and painful.

Over the next three months, Ms. Xia was forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong from morning to midnight. Due to pressure from the labor camp, her aunt and son tried to force her to renounce her faith.

In the labor camp, Ms. Xia witnessed how Falun Gong practitioners were confined to a small dark room and often humiliated, sworn at, and beaten by the guards and inmates. Those who refused to “transform” were locked up in a solitary confinement room and not allowed to buy daily necessities or use the restroom, and had to adhere to a five-minute limit for showering and doing laundry.

The Ministry of Labor’s law stipulated that inmates’ working hours should not exceed six hours per day. In actuality, every inmate had to work for over ten hours per day, and the hours were extended if they didn’t finish the quota for the day.

When Ms. Xia was held at the labor camp, she was forced to assemble thousands of calculator parts, resulting in severe pain in her right thumb that kept her from falling asleep at night. Her eyesight got worse and she lost weight.

When Ms. Xia’s son and daughter-in-law visited her in March 2012, the deputy director and team leader sowed discord between them by telling the couple that she was not allowed to go home because she refused to be “transformed” and that she “chose Falun Gong over her family.” Her son and daughter-in-law believed the officers and stopped visiting her.

Because Ms. Xia refused to be “transformed,” the labor camp extended her term by 17 days. She was released on October 11, 2012.

In August 2015, Ms. Xia was reported to the police for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was detained for 15 days.

Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

Ms. Xia was arrested on April 3, 2018, for hanging Falun Gong banners on the streets. The police interrogated her for over 30 hours in the basement of the police station. Dressed only in a short-sleeved shirt, Ms. Xia froze at night when the temperature dropped, and she kept coughing. She was transferred to Nanchang First Detention Center on April 5, 2018.

Ms. Xia stood trial in August 2019 and was sentenced to two years with a 5,000-yuan fine two months later. She appealed the verdict but learned on January 9, 2020 that the Nanchang City Intermediate Court had upheld the ruling.

Due to the tremendous pressure, poor living conditions in the detention center, and worries about her family, Ms. Xia developed severe insomnia. Her memory also started to fail. By the time Ms. Xia was released on April 3, 2020, her family saw that the once beautiful and cheerful Ms. Xia now looked lifeless and old, with a head full of gray hair.

Ms. Xia Mingjin before being persecuted

Ms. Xia Mingjin after being persecuted

After she was released, the police continued to harass her. They ordered her to report to them every month and write thought reports. They also took her fingerprints and recorded some of her personal information, including her shoe size.

When Ms. Xia refused to submit to their demands, they called her husband in attempts to pressure him.

Ms. Xia was arrested at home on June 15, 2021. The arresting officers from the Daishan Police Station raided her home and took her to a brainwashing center in the Qingshanhu District.

When she refused to renounce her faith, officer Liu Zhibin slapped her face and threatened to send her to a psychiatric hospital. She was released ten days later.

Ms. Xia used mobile banking on December 15, 2021 and got an error message saying she was not allowed to do a wire transfer. She went to her bank to inquire about what was going on and was told that the Xihu District Court had frozen her account. She later noted that the court garnished 5,000 yuan from her bank account to pay the court fine levied on her when she was sentenced back in October 2019.

Related reports:

After One Year of Forced Labor and Two Years in Prison, Jiangxi Woman Faces Prosecution Again for Her Faith in Falun Gong

Jiangxi Woman Still Harassed After Serving Two Years for Her Faith