(Minghui.org) Several police officers broke into the home of a 67-year-old bedridden woman on January 3, 2024, and removed her from her bed. Her family was kept in the dark of her situation until recently, when they received a notice saying that she had been admitted to prison on July 21, 2025, to serve a six-year term for her faith in Falun Gong.
The wrongful conviction of Ms. Li Shulian, a retired lecturer from the Yan’an City Healthcare School in Shaanxi Province, stemmed from an earlier arrest on December 15, 2019, while she was distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in Yulin City, north of Yan’an. After three months at the Yulin City Detention Center, she fell into critical condition and was released on bail.
She was merely skins and bones by the time she was returned to her home, with bedsores on her back and buttocks. She was also incontinent and her mind was confused. She couldn’t remember things that happened a day prior. When her family took her to the hospital, the doctors there refused to admit her because they deemed her beyond treatment.
Yulin and Yan’an City police officers broke into Ms. Li’s home on January 3, 2024, and seized her while she was still in bed. The authorities subsequently refused to provide any updates about her situation. Only in August 2025 did the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison call her family to say that Ms. Li had been taken there on July 21, 2025 to serve a six-year term. Around the same time, the authorities also froze Ms. Li’s bank account for her pension payments.
Ms. Li took up Falun Gong in June 1996. Her many ailments that had tormented her since 1989, including cervical spondylosis, frozen shoulder, arthritis, and hormone disorder, soon disappeared.
Ms. Li was repeatedly arrested after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution in 1999. She served three labor camp terms and a four-year prison term. While in custody, she was subjected to long hours of beatings, forced standing, involuntary drug administration, and being tied up. She lost more than ten teeth from force-feeding.
Ms. Li’s husband, Mr. Cao Huashan, a chemistry teacher at Yan’an Middle School, was also persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. To avoid illegal arrest, he was forced to live away from home between March 2003 and December 2019. He didn’t have any income during that time and relied on his family’s support to get by.
On December 16, 2019, one day after Ms. Li’s arrest, Mr. Cao was also arrested at his rental place. He was sentenced to four years in prison, and served time at the Weinan Prison. After he was released in April 2023, the authorities withheld his pension payments. He now faces an even worse financial predicament since Ms. Li’s pension was also suspended in August 2025.
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