Having Served Three Terms of Forced Labor, Jilin Woman Arrested Again for Her Faith

(Minghui.org) A Jiaohe City, Jilin Province resident was arrested on September 14, 2021, after being reported for talking to people outside a kindergarten about Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Zhao Hongyan was taken to the Jilin City Detention Center on the next day. The police forced her family to pay 1,000 yuan for her physical examination fee, without providing a receipt.

Ms. Zhao began to practice Falun Gong in 1996. After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and was arrested. She returned to Beijing in September 2000 and was arrested again. While being held at the Handan Lockup in nearby Hebei Province, her feet had such severe frostbite that she was unable to walk. In January 2001, she was taken back to Jiaohe and given one year at the Jiutai City Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Zhao wrote a letter to her brother in 2002, detailing the persecution she had suffered. Her letter was intercepted by the Jilin City 610 Office. She was arrested for the third time and taken to a brainwashing session located in a hotel. Because she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was given another year of forced labor. She developed uterine fibroids due to the torture in custody and then released on medical parole.

Ms. Zhao was arrested the fourth time in 2010 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was given a third one-year labor camp term. When she was released in 2011, she suffered lumbar spine tuberculosis, dislocation and loose bones. She was unable to walk or move her body while lying in bed. After she resumed practicing Falun Gong, she recovered later on.

In addition to the persecution she suffered herself, Ms. Zhao’s daughter, Ms. Qiu Lin, was arrested on July 9, 2020 for talking to a retiree about Falun Gong. When Ms. Qin’s lawyer was finally allowed to visit her at the Jilin City Detention Center on January 9, 2021, he learned that she had already been secretly sentenced to three years with a 2,000-yuan fine. She appealed the verdict, but the higher court ruled to uphold her original sentence.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Chen Yantao (陈彦涛), head of Minzhu Police Station: [phone], [phone]Yang Hongwei (杨洪伟), head of Hebeijie Police Station: [phone]Niu Wenjun (牛文军), deputy head of Hebeijie Police Station: [phone], [phone]

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)