(Minghui.org) A 71-year-old resident of Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, completed a six-year prison term on January 22, 2025, only to find that her bank account was still frozen by the trial court that convicted her.
Ms. Tan Guangming’s ordeal began in January 2019 when she was arrested for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. She was sentenced to six years in prison and a 6,000-yuan fine, at an unknown time. The trial court garnished 6,000 yuan from her bank account before freezing it.
Ms. Tan took up Falun Gong in 2008 and soon recovered from her decades-long illnesses, including rheumatoid arthritis, joint pain, and angina pectoris (chest pain caused by reduced blood flow). Prior to her latest prison sentence, she was given one year of forced labor in 2012 and sentenced to five years in prison following an arrest in 2014.
While on a train back home from Jiangsu Province in 2012, Ms. Tan was arrested after a train attendant reported her for holding a banner reading “Falun Dafa is good.” After the train arrived in Hanzhong City, the police took her to the Nanzheng District Detention Center.
Ms. Tan was released 15 days later. Instead of returning home, she boarded a train to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested and taken back to Hanzhong City. She was given one year of forced labor, and served time at the Nanzheng District Detention Center. During her detention, she was once handcuffed and shackled for two weeks for doing the Falun Gong exercises.
After the labor camps were dismantled in 2013, Du Jiucheng, head of the Nanzheng District 610 Office, captain Zhang of the Nanzheng District Domestic Security Division, and Huang Jianzhong (a staffer at the Xiaonanhai Town Justice Bureau), took Ms. Tan to Jiangsu Province, where her husband did odd jobs. They dumped her there so she would not cause them trouble in Hanzhong City. They seized her ID, which rendered her unable to find full-time employment for years. It is unclear whether her ID was subsequently returned.
Ms. Tan was arrested in early 2014 after the police who had been shadowing her caught her talking to people about Falun Gong. They took her to the Hantai District Detention Center. On September 17, 2014, the guards slapped her and another practitioner, Ms. Zuo Li, in the face. After that, three inmates were instructed to beat the two women for two consecutive hours. They next tied up Ms. Tan’s hands and feet and stuffed dirty rags into her mouth. They taped her mouth shut and covered her with a comforter, but without allowing her to sleep that night. She had oral ulcers for a week as a result.
Ms. Tan was later sentenced to five years and admitted to the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison, where she was often beaten, deprived of sleep, and denied restroom use. She was also forced to do hard labor. She was released ahead of time in October 2018.
Ms. Tan gave a Falun Gong brochure to a traffic officer in January 2019 and was reported to the police. Her home was soon raided, with 200 copies of Falun Gong materials being confiscated.
While being held at the Hantai District Detention Center, Ms. Tan developed high blood pressure (with systolic pressure reading of over 200 mmHg, when a normal range is 120 or lower). The guards force-fed her unknown drugs. One person sat on her stomach to pinch her nose and pry open her mouth. She almost suffocated.
Ms. Tan was later sentenced to a six-year prison term with a 6,000-yuan fine. The local court garnished 6,000 yuan from her bank account.
While serving time at the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison, Ms. Tan was again subjected to around the clock monitoring and various forms of torture. The guards instigated inmates to abuse her and other jailed practitioners by promising them term reductions. Once an inmate beat and yelled at Ms. Tan, all the while saying that the government authorized her to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. The inmate threatened to have Ms. Tan stand on a brick if she refused to write statements to renounce Falun Gong.
For a period of time, the guards ordered practitioners to memorize prison rules all day long, sometimes until 2 or 3 a.m. Those who failed to finish their daily “assignments” were not allowed to sleep. Some practitioners went several months without being allowed to go to bed before midnight.
Falun Gong practitioners were also ordered to admit they were “criminals.” Those who refused to comply were beaten. Ms. Tan was once beaten so hard that she had a relapse of her chest pain and went into shock. The guards gave her some medication and she came to.
Besides the torture, Ms. Tan and other practitioners were also forced to do hard labor for long hours every day. Those who failed to finish their quota were not allowed to sleep.
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