Hebei Woman Tortured While Incarcerated for Her Faith, Daughter Seeks to Hold Perpetrators Responsible But Prison Denies Abuse

(Minghui.org) Three days after she was admitted to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison to serve a three-year term for practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Wen Qingfang was brutally beaten by five inmates and suffered severe injuries. She became incapacitated and unable to walk. Her daughter recently sought justice for her and received a notice dated May 13, 2025, saying that there was no evidence that Ms. Wen was beaten and that she was not eligible for medical parole.

Ms. Wen, a 59-year-old resident of Qian’an City, Hebei Province, was arrested on August 1, 2022 and sentenced to three years in July 2023. She was admitted to Division 14 of the Hebei Province Women’s Prison on December 19, 2023. The prison didn’t notify her family of her admission as required by law. For more than one year after her prison transfer, the prison did not allow her loved ones to visit her on the grounds that she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Because Ms. Wen refused to wear the inmate’s name tag and uniform, five inmates beat her in a bathroom on December 22, 2023. She sustained severe injuries and almost died. The prison authorities however didn’t punish the five inmates, including Ma Li (born in April 1980, from Anhui Province), Kong Fanjin (in her 30s, from Hengshui, Hebei Province), Jiang Hairong (38 or 39 years old, from Xingtai, Hebei Province), Ma Yanfei (in her 30s, from Handan, Hebei Province), and Ma Weina (in her 40s, from Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province).

Ms. Wen was unable to walk after the beatings. The prison refused to provide her with a wheelchair and she had to crawl. Despite her condition, the guards instructed several inmates to drag her to the workshop to do hard labor without pay. To not trouble the inmates, she crawled back and forth between her cell and the workshop. The skin on her body was torn as a result. She also suffered significant vision decline and muscle atrophy in her hands and body. When she refused to take the drugs the guards gave her (fearing that they were toxic), the guards instructed the inmates to add the drugs to her food.

The prison also only gave Ms. Wen one steamed bun every few days. When a 17-year-old inmate shared her food with Ms. Wen she was beaten. The guards also punished Ms. Wen by not allowing her to purchase daily necessities or additional food items.

One guard called Ms. Wen’s daughter, Rui (alias), in early 2024, ordering her to persuade her mother to renounce Falun Gong. Rui refused and demanded to visit her mother in the prison. The guard called Rui again the next day and said her mother’s leg was not broken because she was beaten. He assured her that Ms. Wen would walk out of the prison alive, but still denied the visitation request.

Beginning in March 2025, Rui and her husband filed complaints against her mother’s perpetrators with the Hebei Province Women’s Prison, Hebei Province Prison Administration, Hebei Province Justice Bureau, Hebei Province Procuratorate and other relevant agencies. She received the aforementioned notice on May 15, 2025, saying that her mother was never beaten and must serve her full term.

Ms. Wen is scheduled to be released on July 31, 2025.

Seeking Justice

Rui and her husband went to the prison on March 6, 2025 to inquire about her mother’s situation. Hou, head of Division 14, and Yuan Hongmin, the head guard, denied that Ms. Wen’s broken leg was not a result of any beatings. Rui demanded an investigation of the five inmates who beat her mother on December 22, 2023. Hou and Yuan promised to give her a response in one month and agreed to have her meet her mother on March 14, 2025.

Rui returned to the prison on March 10 to submit a request to have mother undergo a medical examination and to ensure her safety. She, her husband, and a lawyer went to the prison just after 9 a.m. on March 14. Division head Hou only allowed her to see her mother. He said that her husband was not an immediate family member and that her lawyer needed to go through a different application process in order to meet with Ms. Wen.

During the meeting, head guard Yuan sat next to Ms. Wen and Hou sat next to Rui.

Rui noted that her mother squinted her eyes and asked if she struggled to see clearly. Ms. Wen said her vision was indeed blurry. Rui said she was there because she learned of her abuse from a newly released prisoner.

Ms. Wen revealed that she almost died between June and August 2024 when she was given very little food to eat and was often beaten. She said she had a near-death experience after a brutal beating. She felt like she walked away from the torture scene and then heard someone calling her name. She then returned to her body and came to, feeling sharp pain in her chest.

Ms. Wen also recounted the beatings on December 22, 2023. She refused to wear a badge or put on a uniform. Instructor Cao Haiyan had the five inmates mentioned earlier stuff her mouth with a rag and beat her in a bathroom. She felt weak in her legs and muddle-headed afterwards. She requested to have a medical examination, which was not done until March 2024. After that, she was beaten on a regular basis for several months. Her vision kept declining. She told Rui that the prison threatened many times to make trouble for Rui and her husband.

When the meeting time was up, Rui requested to see her mother leave the meeting room first because she wanted to see whether she could walk. Hou refused her request.

When Hou escorted Rui downstairs, he got a phone call. He then took her to the warden’s office. Soon three male guards and two female guards came. They were Zhou Yang (the prison’s appeals office head), Liu (head of the prison hospital), Gao (head of the education section), Li (head of the prison affairs section), and a captain from the investigation team.

The captain first briefed Rui on his investigation results, followed by Liu’s explanation of Ms. Wen’s health condition. Neither of them indicated that anyone would be responsible for her injuries. Rui voiced her opposition to the “findings” and asked them why they did not notify her of her mother’s condition back in December 2023 and June-August 2024, when her mother was brutally beaten.

Gao replied that they were being considerate of Rui as she had a child to take care of. She replied she always had time for her mother no matter how busy she was. They then began complaining about Ms. Wen’s stubbornness in holding firm to her faith. Rui asked if that was the reason for her abuse and denied family visitation. They said she shouldn’t think of it that way.

They reminded Rui that her mother only had months left on her term and they hoped no one would “bother” her. Rui said she only wanted her mother to be safe.

Rui and her lawyer went to the prison again on March 19. This time the lawyer was allowed to meet with Ms. Wen. A guard said the prison would issue an investigation report in mid-April.

On April 2, Rui, her husband, and two lawyers went to the Hebei Prison Prison Administration Bureau and Jizhongnan Procuratorate to submit a complaint against instructor Cao and the five said inmates for Ms. Wen’s beatings.

After that, Rui, her husband, and one of the lawyers, went to the prison. Zhou, the appeals office head, told them that the prison’s investigation determined that inmate Ma did not beat Ms. Wen, but simply took her to the bathroom to put a prisoner’s uniform on her. To prevent Ms. Wen from shouting, Ma covered her mouth. Rui asked why the other four inmates were also there and whether the bathroom had surveillance cameras. Zhou denied that. Rui asked for a hard copy of the investigation results and Zhou said it was not ready yet.

Rui and her husband went to the prison on the morning of April 15 and requested to see Ms. Wen. They were allowed to see her that afternoon. Ms. Wen appeared in good spirits and division head Hou said to Rui, “Your mother faked being unable to walk.”

Rui received a hard copy of the prison appeals office’s investigation report on April 16. She wrote a response to it and went to the Hebei Province Prison Administration Bureau’s Appeals Office. The staffers there refused to accept the written response. She then went to the Hebei Province Procuratorate. The head of the appeals office acknowledged that the prison did something wrong and wrote a “letter of introduction” for Rui to take to the Fifth Department of the Shijiazhuang Municipal Procuratorate.

Ms. Wen called Rui on May 5 to say that she had been moved to Division 17 (for the elderly), which was much better than Division 14. She asked her family not to worry about her and said they no longer needed to visit her.

Rui received a notice from Zhou on May 18. Dated May 13, the notice repeated the same opinion that no evidence indicated that Ms. Wen was ever beaten by any inmate and stated that she was not eligible for medical parole.

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