(Minghui.org) Two Chongqing women were released on September 18, 2025, after both serving three years for their faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Gui Fengcui, 78, and Ms. Zhu Huijie, a 74-year-old retired elementary school teacher, both took up Falun Gong in early 1998 and soon recovered from their gynecological diseases. After the persecution began, they held firm to their faith and were both sentenced three times for a total of six and a half years.
When Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu talked to two students about Falun Gong on September 19, 2022, they were reported to the police.
Zhang Yuxiao and five other officers from the Gecheng Town Police Station raided the two women’s homes that afternoon and confiscated their Falun Gong books, music players, and valuables.
The two women were put under criminal detention at the Chengkou County Detention Center and issued formal arrest warrants on October 27, 2022. They were forced to give samples of their blood and have their blood pressure measured many times in the detention center.
Officer Zhang and a policewoman (name unknown) took Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu to the Kaizhou District Prison in early April 2023. They were not allowed to take with them the new bedding, clothes, and food that they had purchased from the detention center store just a few days before.
On September 27, 2023, the Kaizhou District Court sentenced Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu to three years and fined them each 10,000 yuan. On December 20 that year, they were transferred to the Chongqing Women’s Prison in the Jiulongpo District. Again, they were not allowed to take with them the new bedding and clothes they had purchased from the Kaizhou District Prison.
The women were abused in both prisons. While in the Kaizhou District Prison, Ms. Gui was handcuffed, shackled, and forced to stand facing a wall for long hours. The guards didn’t let her eat or use the restroom. She became dazed and dizzy. Once she fell in the restroom and broke her right hand.
After Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu were moved to the Chongqing Women’s Prison, they were assigned to Division One, which was given a target “transformation” rate of 100% in forcing jailed Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith.
Guards Liu, Tan, Huang, Zhou, and Zou appeared to be nice to the practitioners but instigated felons and collaborators to torture them. The inmates even laced the practitioners’ food with drugs that damage the central nervous system. Some practitioners became mentally disordered and suffered memory loss.
Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu were also verbally abused by inmates Song Li, Bai Yan, and Yin Zhixia. Mu Ziyan, Jin Ya, Tang Jialan, Wu Huanhuan, and Xue Meng were assigned to monitor Ms. Gui. They forced her to study materials slandering Falun Gong late into night and write thought reports every day. Whenever she refused to comply, they made her stand facing a wall for long hours. They didn’t give her anything to eat and required her to seek permission for restroom use, which they often did not grant. When she wet her pants, they didn’t let her change clothes. Due tp the prolonged standing with no food or sleep, she collapsed and she was rushed to the prison hospital.
Ms. Gui was reassigned to Division 4 on March 25, 2025. The division mostly housed older and infirm prisoners, who are forced to work on producing toys. Because Ms. Gui’s hand that had been fractured in the Kaizhou District Prison had not healed, she was unable to do slave labor. Inmates Liu Wenqin, Zhang Xiaorong, Tang Shulan, and Peng Li subjected her to intensive brainwashing. They forced her to study materials smearing Falun Gong and write thought reports every day. They also made her take mock tests to prepare for inspections by the higher-ups of the prison’s “transformation” of jailed Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu were released on September 18, 2025.
Ms. Gui and Ms. Zhu were grocery shopping together in 2008 when they gave a Falun Gong brochure to a middle school student, who reported by them. The Chengkou County Police Department pored over the surveillance videos and identified the two women. That afternoon, Li Xiantang, Lan Hui, Xiang Haishan, and Chen Qirong from the Gecheng Town Police Station, along with agents from the police department, raided both women’s homes and confiscated their Falun Gong books and music players.
The women were taken to the police department-affiliated detention center for interrogation. They were each sentenced to three years and fined 5,000 yuan in mid-February 2009. They were admitted to the Yongchuan Women’s Prison two months later and released in July 2011.
Deputy chief Li from the Gecheng Town Police Station, Fu Lin, and another officer arrested Ms. Zhu and Ms. Gui at their respective homes on the afternoon of January 9, 2017, after receiving a tip that they had put up Falun Gong flyers outside the local middle school.
The police played the surveillance footage and interrogated Ms. Zhu and Ms. Gui, who were forced to given their fingerprints, sign the interrogation records, and have their pictures taken. Li promised to release them after the interrogation but did not.
Ms. Gui and Ms. Feng were both sentenced to six months in late December 2017. Ms. Gui was admitted to Yongchuan Prison. Ms. Zhu was allowed to serve time at home but had to pay a fine, amount unknown.