(Minghui.org) A woman in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, has been sentenced to prison three times since the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of her faith, Falun Gong, in July 1999.
Ms. Tang Yu served the entirety of her first two prison terms (1.5 and 3.5 years) (June 2008 – December 2009 and November 2015 – May 2019). For her third prison sentence (three years and eight months), she was released one year ahead of time. She was brutally tortured during all three prison terms.
When Ms. Tang applied for retirement after her most recent prison release on September 19, 2024, she was first ordered to pay a 30,000-yuan application fee. She complied, only to be told that her 33 years of service had been wiped out and that the pension contributions made by her employer no longer counted. They said she would have to make contributions for another 11 years before she could start receiving payments. Now aged 57 and in poor health, Ms. Tang is struggling to make ends meet.
Ms. Tang was arrested at home on January 20, 2022, by 16 officers, including Qu Shumin from the Xishan Police Department, and Ma Dongyu and Jiang Tao from the Dongluqiao Police Station. She tried to escape but was stopped. The police held her arms behind her back and pushed her head against the ground, causing her to have trouble breathing.
The police injected Ms. Tang with a sedative and put a helmet on her head. As her home was locked with the key left inside, they called in a locksmith. Once inside her home, Ma continued to hold Ms. Tang down while the other officers searched the property. Her Falun Gong books, printed informational materials, computer, cell phone, hard drive, and 3,000 yuan in cash were confiscated. She was held at the Dongluqiao Police Station overnight without being given any food, and was taken to the Kunming City Detention Center the next afternoon.
Prosecutor Zhang Jianwen of the Xishan District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Tang on May 19, 2022. He recommended a heavy sentence, calling her a “repeat offender” because she was sentenced to 1.5 years and 3.5 years in 2008 and 2015, respectively, also for her faith in Falun Gong. In June 2022, the Xishan District Court sentenced Ms. Tang to three years and eight months, with an 8,000-yuan fine.
Ms. Tang was admitted to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison on November 20, 2022. Guard Zhang Heyun instigated inmates to “transform” her. She was denied visits with her family and was not allowed to buy daily necessities, including toilet paper. Other inmates were forbidden to help her in any way.
Every day, Ms. Tang was forced to sit motionless on a small stool while facing the surveillance camera. She was given a third of a basin of water each day for washing and brushing her teeth. She was once denied showers for a whole month, and then the inmates humiliated her for being “stinky.” Sometimes, inmates sat in front of her bed to monitor her while she was sleeping.
Once, when Ms. Tang tried to talk to other Falun Gong practitioners, inmate Wang Wei hit her on the back.
Ms. Tang was later transferred from the Ninth Division to the Eighth Division and was forced to do hard labor every day. Because the rubber overshoes she was given were too tight, her toes swelled and became infected.
Inmate Wang Wei placed a plastic sheet under Ms. Tang’s bed and then accused her of “stealing” it. They used this tactic as an excuse to frequently search her, sometimes forcing her to strip naked and squat.
On Chinese New Year in 2022, Ms. Tang vomited violently after eating some tomato. A guard took her to the in-house clinic, where she was given two injections. She felt extreme pain in her limbs and lost her balance. She suspected the injections were toxic.
Another time, Ms. Tang had high blood pressure and a headache and vomited after having her blood drawn. She had excruciating abdominal pain after taking the pills the prison doctor gave her.
When Ms. Tang fainted in the workshop, the guards took her to the prison hospital and gave her a box of pills. When she asked what the pills were, a guard threatened to beat her.
Ms. Tang was released one year early on September 19, 2024. She struggled with many health issues, including painful red lumps on her skin, joint pain, constantly feeling cold, swelling and numbness in her limbs, drooling, and hallucinations. She also became extremely fearful whenever she heard people talking outside her home and whenever she saw a surveillance camera.
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