(Minghui.org) A 52-year-old woman in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, was not released when her 15-day detention ended on August 24, 2026. Ms. Xu Lihua was instead taken straight from the Wuhan City First Women’s Lockup to the Yusunshan Brainwashing Center, where she remains.
Ms. Xu was targeted because she held firm to her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Her family filed a complaint against the Wuhan City First Women’s Lockup for depriving them of the right to pick up their loved one when her 15-day detention expired. The lockup claimed that families were not allowed to pick up Falun Gong practitioners, who “should be handed over to the police station that initially made the arrests.” No law in China says so.
Past Persecution
Ms. Xu took up Falun Gong around July 1995 and regained her health. After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to freedom of belief the next month. She was arrested and sent back to Wuhan. After an unknown amount of detention, she was put under six-month house arrest.
The local 610 Office and police station agents took turns harassing her and ordering her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. They also pressured her husband to beat her, sometimes for up to two hours. Once, they ordered her husband to put a kitchen knife to her neck and pushed her into a river when she refused to give up her belief. Fortunately, a passerby spotted her and saved her.
Ms. Xu was given two years of forced labor in 2000 after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. She was forced to do hard labor and subjected to brutal beatings.
Officers from the Zhuru Street Police Station arrested Ms. Xu on March 23, 2011, while she was talking to people about Falun Gong at a fair. They took her to the Wuhan City First Women’s Labor Camp. Her family demanded her release. The police promised to free her in 15 days, only to transfer her to the Hewan Labor Camp to serve a term of one and a half years.
Ms. Xu was arrested again during the 2004 Chinese New Year. The police soon released her because of her month-old baby, but seized her again on February 20, 2004. None of the arresting officers wore police uniforms. Her neighbors condemned the police for arresting a law-abiding nursing mother.
Ms. Xu was put in the Wuhan City First Detention Center, where the guards did not allow her to sleep whenever she refused to recite prison rules. She was later sentenced to three years and served time at the Hubei Province Women’s Prison.
Brother Lost to Persecution of Falun Gong
Ms. Xu was not the only one in her family persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. Her brother, Mr. Xu Guanglin, a Chinese Medicine doctor, took up Falun Gong while a student at the Hubei Chinese Medicine University. He went to Beijing twice to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested in March 2000. He went on a hunger strike and was force-fed. He was sentenced to three years in September 2000 and admitted to Hankou Prison.
The prison guards instructed the inmates to beat him and deprive him of sleep. He was forced to stand for long hours. The guards later tied up his legs and stuffed him under a bed. A few inmates then stood on the bed and stomped on him. He almost suffocated. He once went on a hunger strike for 19 days. He became weak and became seriously ill. He never recovered after being released in 2002. He died on May 1, 2005, at the age of 33.
Mr. Xu Guanglin
Mr. Xu’s parents struggled to cope with his death and died one after another.
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