(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Faqun, 84, from Gulin County, Sichuan Province, was sent to prison on May 13, 2025 to serve a four-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Liu was arrested on November 24, 2022 for passing out information about Falun Gong. She was released on bail that day but the police repeatedly attempted to take her back into custody. The Gulin County Court sentenced her to four years and fined her 30,000 yuan on December 25, 2024. She was initially allowed to serve time outside of prison but the local justice bureau issued an opinion around March 2025 alleging that she “posed harm to society” and must be imprisoned, even though she suffered from high blood pressure and other serious medical conditions.
The police went to Ms. Liu’s home on May 9, 2025 and told her, “Even if we have to call an ambulance, we are carrying out the court order to take you into custody!” They put her in the Luzhou City Detention Center that day and transferred her to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison on May 13. Her medical parole has been denied.
Below are the details of Ms. Liu’s persecution.
Ms. Liu gave someone a Falun Gong flyer while shopping for groceries on the morning of November 24, 2022. A police officer followed her home. One hour later, eight officers came to her home and claimed that they were there to give her a COVID-19 test. Before Ms. Liu responded, the police began to ransack her home. A female officer produced a piece of paper and said it was the search warrant. Ms. Liu explained that she was unable to read due to her poor vision but the officer refused to read it to her.
Ms. Liu was held in her kitchen by another female officer, while the others searched her home. That officer followed her when she used the restroom. When Ms. Liu spotted the police opening a drawer in her bedroom where she kept her cash, they first ordered her to get out and then asked the female officer who was watching her to take her directly to the Dongcheng Police Station, while they continued the raid.
Ms. Liu was held at the police station for a day. After it got dark, officer Dai Weizhi forced her to sign many documents, none of which she was able to read due to her poor vision.
When Ms. Liu returned home after 10 p.m., she found her Falun Gong books, media player, informational materials, ID, social security card, and nearly 60,000 yuan in cash were all gone.
The police and community workers kept harassing Ms. Liu at home and photographed her. One officer held her hand and tried to force her to fingerprint a document to renounce Falun Gong. She firmly refused.
In February 2023, Ms. Liu received a call from the Dongcheng Police Station and was ordered to go there. When she went there she was forced to sit in a metal chair and was interrogated. She urged them not to participate in the persecution and officer Dai told her they submitted her case to the Guilin County Procuratorate.
Ms. Liu was summoned to the procuratorate at an unknown time. Prosecutor Min Lian instructed his assistant to go to Ms. Liu’s home to take photos and he appointed a lawyer to represent her. The lawyer told her, “They will dismiss your case if you plead guilty.” Ms. Liu said that she didn’t violate any law by practicing her faith and she refused to plead guilty.
The Gulin County Court later held two hearings of Ms. Liu’s case (the exact dates are unknown). She recalled that the first hearing was very short and she only remembered that the prosecutor produced a list which stated where she got the nearly 60,000 yuan in cash that was confiscated from her home. She explained that 20,000 yuan of the money was paper currency printed with information about Falun Gong and was given to her for safekeeping by a practitioner before he died. She said that she didn’t commit any crime and she merely practiced Falun Gong to improve her health and be a good person.
Before her second hearing, her court-appointed lawyer attempted to pressure her into pleading guilty again. She refused to comply. During the hearing, the presiding judge, Gan Luqiang, also ordered her to plead guilty. She argued that she was already in her 80s and she didn’t do anything to harm others; if she didn’t practice Falun Gong, she might have died many years ago.
Judge Gan didn’t give her an opportunity during the trial to defend her innocence in having or distributing Falun Gong materials. He and the prosecutor also ridiculed her when she tried to explain the facts about Falun Gong in court, saying, “She’s still talking about this? Why does she think we would believe her?”
On December 25, 2024, judge Gan sentenced Ms. Liu to four years and fined her 30,000 yuan. The fine was deducted from the cash that was confiscated from her home. It’s not clear whether the police plan to return the rest of her money. Two more judges, Xiao Zubi and Liu Yan, also signed her verdict. Both judges Gan and Xiao previously sentenced three practitioners, including Mr. Hu Biao, Ms. Zhang Ziqin and Mr. Su Anqing, in 2012.
Ms. Liu appealed to the Luzhou City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict on January 16, 2025. The ruling was signed by presiding judge Li Xudong and assistant judges Li Ruiliang and Luo Chan. Ms. Liu was shocked to see the words: “confessed her crime” and “have no objection to the charge in the first-instance trial” in the rulings.
Since 2009, judge Li Xudong worked with the lower court to sentence at least 39 Falun Gong practitioners and judge Li Ruiliang was responsible for sentencing at least 18 practitioners.
On November 15, 2024, six weeks before Ms. Liu was sentenced, two officers attempted to take her to the hospital for a physical examination. She refused to go with them. They then forced her son to accompany her to the hospital.
The examination took about two hours. The police next took Ms. Liu to the Dongcheng Police Station to have her voice recorded. After the doctor sent the results over, the police ordered her to the go with them to the county police department and they promised that they wouldn’t detain her, but would release her later that day.
When Ms. Liu and her son got into the police car, it headed towards the highway, not in the direction of the police department. After driving for more than one hour, they arrived at the Naxi Detention Center. The doctor there reviewed Ms. Liu’s physical exam report and noted that her systolic pressure was 190 mmHg (the normal level is 120 mmHg or lower). The doctor took another measurement and the reading was 203 mmHg. He rejected her admission.
Ms. Liu and her son went back to Gulin County with the police. As it was already dark, she had a hard fall while getting out of the car. She had large areas of bruises on her arms, legs, back and buttocks, which didn’t go away for a long time. The police told her she could go home.
Due to the mental pressure, fatigue, and fall, Ms. Liu had a heart attack four days later. She also had a relapse of tracheitis and coughed for months. She was unable to eat or sleep well and had to be admitted to hospital for treatment. She said, “In the past 20 years, I’ve been very healthy thanks to Falun Gong. But because of the persecution, I’m sick again.”
While Ms. Liu was still bedridden, the court delivered the verdict to her home on December 25, 2024. Five days later on December 30, the police came to take Ms. Liu for another physical examination. Her son said she was very sick and couldn’t get up. The police responded, “She has to go, even if we have to carry her to the hospital.”
Ms. Liu was forced to follow the police to the hospital, even though she was very weak and dizzy. She said undergoing all the examinations exhausted her.
After the examinations were done, the police didn’t allow Ms. Liu to go home, but took her to the police station and interrogated her for a few more hours. She wasn’t allowed to go home until 6 p.m.
The next day, despite the fact that she had a severe heart condition, dangerously high blood pressure and a kidney condition, the police still took her to the Naxi Detention Center over 100 miles away. The doctor again refused to admit her and the police had to take her back.
In late February 2025, after Ms. Liu lost her appeal, the police tricked her into having another physical examination by promising her she’d have “medical parole.” This time, her systolic pressure reading was 220 mmHg and the doctor also collected her stool sample. She was ordered to wear a blood pressure monitoring device. When she returned to the hospital the next day, the doctor said her systolic pressure reading was between 170 and 180 mmHg.
Ten days later, officials of the Gulin Justice Bureau came and said they were in charge of her case and they would come every three months to photograph her. She tried to explain to them that no law in China says practicing Falun Gong is a crime and that the General Administration of Press and Publication lifted the ban on Falun Gong books in 2011.
Not long after, the justice bureau issued a letter, saying that Ms. Liu “poses harm to society and community correction wasn’t recommended.” Based on the letter, the Gulin County Court revoked the decision to allow Ms. Liu to serve time at home on April 14, 2025.
On the afternoon of May 9, 2025, a group of officers from the Dongcheng Police Station forcibly took Ms. Liu to the Naxi Detention Center, despite her family’s strong protest. The police claimed they would detain her no matter how sick she was and they had to take her to the detention center even if it was in an ambulance. When she arrived at the detention center, the doctor gave Ms. Liu IV drips, attempting to bring her blood pressure down. She was transferred to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison in the capital city Chengdu four days later on May 13.