Hengyang City, Hunan Province: 11 Stand Trial for Practicing Falun Gong
(Minghui.org) Eleven residents of Hengyang City, Hunan Province, stood trial at the Zhengxiang District Court on April 15, 2025 for their practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Only two family members of each practitioner were allowed to attend the trial. Some practitioners were represented by court-appointed lawyers. Other details of the hearing are unclear.
Arrests
Ms. Fu Huilan
Beginning in June 2022, Mr. Deng Kunhe, his wife Ms. Jiang Zhen, Mr. Zhou Zixian, Ms. Yin Chaoqun, Ms. Fu Huilan, and Mr. Cao Chenhui worked together to produce audio- and video-files to submit to zhengjiang.org (a website run by Falun Gong practitioners outside of China). The six practitioners used instant messaging apps including Signal, Telegram, and SafeChat to communicate with each other, which eventually caught the authorities’ attention. The Ministry of Public Security issued an order to investigate the case and tasked the Hunan Province Public Security Bureau with overseeing the investigation. The latter agency delegated the task to the Hengyang City Police Department, which in turn mobilized its subordinate police departments and police stations to work on the “major and key case.”
The Hengyang City Domestic Security Division started to closely monitor the six practitioners in early March 2024. They discovered that Ms. Tang Hengyan, Ms. Hu Xiaoyun, Ms. Zhou Junhui, Mr. Li Yuwen, and Ms. Wang Yuanxiu had direct or indirect contact with the first six practitioners.
Mr. Li Yuwen
The police arrested all eleven practitioners and raided their homes on three days between around April 2024, seizing Mr. Cao on March 30, Ms. Wang on April 20, and the rest on March 31.
They took the four men to the Hengdong County Detention Center and the seven women to the Hengyang City Women’s Detention Center. Ms. Zhou was later released on bail on April 3, 2024. Ms. Fu and Ms. Li were put on criminal detention on April 1, 2024 and issued formal arrest warrants on May 7, 2024. Both refused to sign any paperwork. Ms. Jiang was released on house arrest on May 20, 2024. Ms. Wang was put on residential surveillance at a local hospital at an unknown date.
Indictment and Trial
The police submitted the joint case against the eleven practitioners to the procuratorate on July 5, 2024. Prosecutor Cheng Yihui and his assistant Zhang Wei deposed the practitioners the next day and ordered them to admit their “guilt.” Due to lack of evidence, Cheng returned the case to the police, who resubmitted the case on September 5, 2024.
Prosecutor Cheng indicted all eleven practitioners on September 30, 2024. Mr. Zhou, Mr. Deng, Ms. Yin, Ms. Fu, Mr. Cao, and Ms. Jiang were charged for organizing the production of audio- and video-files to submit to zhengjiang.org. The other five practitioners were charged for having contact with the first six practitioners.
The eleven practitioners appeared in the Zhengxiang District Court on April 15, 2025. While some of them were appointed lawyers, it is unclear whether the rest had their own lawyers.
More Information About the Practitioners
Mr. Cao, born in January 1984, graduated from Tianjin University of Science and Technology in 2007. He works as a photographer. On March 30, 2024, he was arrested in the lobby of the Longdongbao International Airport in Guiyang, Guizhou Province by officers Huang Hui, Luo Zichun and others from the Criminal Investigation Team of the High-tech Branch of Hengyang City Domestic Security Division. They then brought him back to Hunan Province.
Mr. Deng, born in November 1973, graduated from Xianning Medical College of Hubei Province in 2000. He worked in the Zaozhuang Fourth Hospital of Shandong Province but was later fired for practicing Falun Gong. He then moved to Zhejiang Province but was arrested there and given three years of forced labor in 2003 for talking to people about Falun Gong. After his release, he returned to Hunan Province and opened his own clinic. His latest arrest on March 31, 2024 was at the hands of officers from the Zhengxiang District Police Department.
Mr. Deng’s wife Ms. Jiang, born in October 1985, was also arrested on the same day by officers from the Changhu Police Station. She has been under residential surveillance at a hospital since May 20, 2024.
Mr. Zhou, born in April 1956, has an associate’s degree. He retired from the Hengyang Petroleum Company. He was given one and a half years of forced labor in November 1999 for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. On November 10, 2003, he was sentenced to six years in prison by the Hengyang County Court for raising awareness of Falun Gong. He was arrested on March 31, 2024 as soon as he stepped outside his apartment building around 9 a.m., by officers Zhou Hongjun and Lei Manhui from the Lianhe Police Station, who were staked outside.
Ms. Yin, born in October 1966, has an associate’s degree. She retired from Housing and Construction Bureau of Zhengxiang District, Hengyang City. Around 3:00 p.m. on March 31, 2024, she was arrested at home by officers Zhou Yubo, Liu Han and others from the Zhengxiang North Road Police Station of the Zhengxiang District Domestic Security Division.
Ms. Fu was born in June 1967 in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province. She has a college degree and is the former vice chairman of the Hengyang Yanfeng District Federation of Industry and Commerce. She was repeatedly targeted for practicing Falun Gong. She was given administrative detention on October 24, 2012 and sentenced to four years in prison on November 9, 2016. She spent five days in detention from May 25 to 29, 2023. Her latest arrest was around noon on March 31, 2024, by officers Lu Xuanliang, Li Shunkai and others from the Huancheng South Road Police Station. The police raided her home past 5 p.m. that day, and confiscated her computer, hard drive, flash drive, TF card, and Falun Gong books.
Mr. Li, born in September 1966, repeairs household appliances. He was given one year of forced labor on July 9, 2010 for producing and distributing Falun Gong informational materials and installing satellite dishes to receive uncensored news from the U.S. His latest arrest took place near the Peace Dove Kindergarten in the Heping Community around noon on March 31, 2024, by officers Liu Dunqi, Liu Peiqing and others from the High-tech Zone Police Department. The police raided his home immediately afterwards and confiscated his laptop, desktop, cell phone, flash drives, CDs, TF cards, and Falun Gong books. His arrest happened after he helped Ms. Fu repair her broken water pipes that morning.
Ms. Tang, born in October 1964, is a retired employee of Hengyang Cotton Mill. She was arrested on May 18, 2003 for talking to people about Falun Gong and detained for 20 days. Her latest arrest happened at around 7 p.m. on March 31, 2024, by officers Lu Xuanliang, Zheng Xiang, Wang Li and other police officers from the Huancheng South Road Police Station.
Ms. Hu, born in August 1965, is a retired employee of Hengyang Shoe Factory. She was sentenced to one year in prison by the Guangzhou Railway Transportation Court in Guangdong Province on May 3, 2018. Her latest arrest took place around 5 p.m. on March 31, 2024, by officers Cao Lei, Zhou Chao and others from the Hejiang Police Station.
Ms. Zhou, born in May 1970, credits Falun Gong, which she took up in March 2022, for resolving her high blood sugar, psoriasis and Meniere’s syndrome. She was arrested at a parking lot in her residential compound around 6 p.m. on March 31, 2024, by officers Jiang Aixue, Zhang Qianfeng and others officers from the Baishazhou Police Station. She was released on bail on April 3, 2024.
Ms. Wang, born in January 1955, is a retired employee of Hengyang Ribbon Factory. Her latest arrest took place at around noon on April 20, 2024, by officers Lu Xuanliang, Zhou Chao, Li Shunkai, Zhang Weiwen and others from the Huancheng South Road Police Station.
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