Middle Aged Woman Sentenced to Eight Years for Distributing DVD Promoting Chinese Traditional Culture

(Minghui.org) Four Kunming City, Yunnan Province residents were sentenced to between 7.5 and 10 years in 2013 for distributing DVDs containing information about traditional Chinese culture and the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong. One of them, Ms. Peng Xueping, recounted the persecution that she suffered at Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison after being released in August 2019.

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My name is Peng Xueping, and I am 44 years old. I began to practice Falun Gong in 2003. Having been infertile after years of marriage, I got pregnant shortly after taking up Falun Gong. I benefited both physically and mentally from Falun Gong, which teaches people to be good by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I am so glad that I learned Falun Gong as human morality is declining every day.

However, many people in China have been deceived by the propaganda after the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. In order to help more people know the facts, I started to distribute Falun Gong information materials to expose the persecution.

Arrested and Interrogated

Three fellow practitioners and I went to distribute Falun Gong information materials at villages in Lufeng County in Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province on December 20, 2012. The main material was a DVD of the Chinese New Year Global Gala with dance and music performances based upon traditional Chinese culture. It also highlighted how the communist regime persecutes Falun Gong and how the practitioners stand up to the tyranny with strong conviction. Unfortunately, we were reported to the police and arrested by officers from Tuo’anxiang Police Station.

The officers grabbed fellow practitioner Ran Xiaoman’s hair and my hair, forcibly put our hands behind our backs, stuffed us into my car and drove us to the police station. They continued to pull our hair after getting out of the car.

I was surprised to see my mother-in-law Liu Cuixian there, who was also arrested for distributing DVDs. She tried to stop the police from beating me, only to be slapped in the face herself and kicked to the ground. The police forced us to squat on the ground.

Later, the police took each of us into a separate room for interrogation. I was so scared that I lied to them that I was paid to give my fellow practitioners a ride. Soon several agents from Lufeng County Domestic Security Office came and searched us. They confiscated the rest of the DVDs found in my car and forced us to put our fingerprint on the confiscation list. We were not allowed to eat or use the bathroom until midnight.

Home Raid and Detention

The next day the interrogation resumed at around 6 a.m. We refused to tell them our names and addresses. The police took our pictures and gave them to officials in nearby villages, who then went door to door to ask if the villagers received any informational materials and to identify who gave it to them.

The interrogation ended at 7 p.m., and we were brought to the county’s hospital for a medical checkup. At around 11 p.m., we were taken to Lufeng County Detention Center.

During our detention, police ransacked my and my mother-in-law’s residences.

Barred from Meeting with Lawyer and Wrongfully Sentenced

My family hired a human rights lawyer from Beijing to defend me, but the authorities blocked the lawyer from visiting me for the over ten trips he made to the detention center. The lawyer wasn’t allowed to review my case documents, either.

When the Lufeng County Court held the first hearing of our case in late April 2013, we saw armed police standing on both sides of the narrow road when we were taken there. When I arrived at the courtroom, I saw my lawyer being pushed out of the courtroom by the bailiffs, who claimed that my lawyer had violated legal procedure.

We requested the judge to postpone the hearing, but to no avail. Without legal representation, we had no choice but to enter not guilty pleas for ourselves.

A few days before the second hearing on May 31, 2013, the presiding judge Li Liangsheng, and judges Yang Yueming and Zhu Yan, came to the detention center and told us that the lawyers we hired could not defend us anymore, but the judges could appoint lawyers to represent us free of charge. I asked them, “Will the lawyer you appointed enter a not guilty for me?” They said no. I refused to accept the lawyer.

During the second hearing, I demanded to have witnesses appear in court to accept cross examination, but no one showed up. I also requested the court play the DVD we distributed, but my request was denied as well.

The presiding judge sentenced me to eight years at the end of the hearing, on charges of “organizing and using a cult to undermine the implementation of law,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners. My car was confiscated.

I appealed with Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate Court in June 2013, but it ruled to uphold my original sentence on October 10. I was taken to the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women’s Prison on November 1, 2013.

Tortured in the Women’s Prison

This prison is the only prison in Yunnan that incarcerates female Falun Gong practitioners. Over the years, it has established a torture system to force practitioners to renounce their faith. I was placed in the ninth division, which is specially set up for Falun Gong practitioners.

Torture reenactment: sitting on a small stool for a long time period

At the beginning, all practitioners assigned to the ninth division were forced to sit on a small stool for over 10 hours continuously. The surface of the stool was uneven and pockmarked. We must sit on it straight, not allowed to lean against anything or to lower our heads or close our eyes. We were only allowed to drink one cup of water a day and bathe once a week with one basin of water. We had to write an application to the prison guards stating which crime we committed if we wanted to buy daily necessities. Even if the application got approved, we could only buy a few items, worth no more than 50 yuan in total. We were also deprived of the right to see, call or write to our families.

I spent about four months in the ninth division and I felt each day was like a year. Worried about my children and unable to bear the persecution anymore, I wrote a statement to renounce Falun Gong against my will. I regret it so much and I hereby declare that all the words and actions I have done under the persecution in the prison are null and void.

I was transferred to the fifth division and assigned to make clothes. I was monitored by the inmates 24 hours a day. They wrote down everything I did and reported to the prison guards on a daily basis. Anytime I talked to a fellow practitioner, they reported it to the guards. Once guard Zhang Yingxin ordered me to write a thought report, but I refused. Then Zhang ordered inmate Baowang to write it on my behalf and I didn’t know what was written at all.

While making the clothes, we had to be highly concentrated while working, as the slightest inattention would cause the needle to pierce through the fingernails. Sometimes we had to work over 10 hours a day. Some inmates put the shell of a sunflower seed between their eyelids to prevent themselves from falling asleep. Almost everyone in the group had their fingers pricked by the needles. But most would hide the wound, to avoid being verbally abused by the guards or lose their points for term reduction. The workshop was so dusty that I also developed serious rhinitis.

Although I was allowed to see my family in the fifth division, our meetings were monitored and videotaped the entire time. To protest the persecution, I refused to attend the meeting several times, before the guards finally stopped videotaping us.

Harassment after Release

I was released in August 2019. A guard took a few pictures of me at the prison gate. Officers from Zongshuying Police Station in Kunming City drove me to the police station. They took my fingerprints and blood sample. They also followed me to the hair salon and took a strand of my hair. They went into my home before I did and took pictures everywhere. My sister happened to be at my home and she witnessed what they did.

The next day, police officers from Hongshan Police Station (in charge of my residence) came to check on me. One officer said he might come to find me at anytime. A few days later, they called my husband and asked me to go to the police station. I didn’t do anything wrong, so I decided to face them openly and squarely. When they requested to take a picture of me and sign a statement, I refused.

At the beginning of 2020, I went with my mother-in-law, husband and son to visit my mother in Lufeng County. I hadn’t seen her after I was detained. However, on the way back at the train station, we were surrounded by a group of police officers who claimed that they received instructions from above and needed to search us. They didn’t find anything and let us leave.

The second day after I came back home, two officers from Hongshan Police Station came again. I protested the harassment and told them what they were doing is illegal.

I hope all those who participated in the persecution would think about what they did and weigh it against their conscience. I hope they could learn more about Falun Gong, and be responsible for society and for themselves.

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