Persecuted for His Faith Since High School, Gansu Man Gets 3.5 Years in Prison

(Minghui.org) It was recently confirmed by Minghui.org that a 44-year-old man was set to be admitted to the Weinan Prison in Shaanxi Province soon to serve a 3.5-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Li Xueyi, a native of Linxia City, Gansu Province, worked at the Yushen Industrial Park in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. He and his coworker, Mr. Wei Suichun, also a Falun Gong practitioner and a native of Qingyang City, Gansu Province, were arrested on April 1, 2023, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials the day before. The Yuyang District Procuratorate approved their arrests on May 9, 2023. While it has been confirmed that Mr. Li was sentenced to 3.5 years by the Yulin City Court, Mr. Wei’s case status is still not clear.

Mr. Li has been targeted for his faith since high school. He was arrested at home on March 22, 2000, and detained at the Linxia City Police Department. Wang Wanping, a police director, slapped the then-high-school-senior in the face so hard on the third day that he lost most of his hearing permanently.

Mr. Li later attended a college in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, but was forced to drop out of school on April 25, 2002 and leave home to avoid the persecution. He was followed by the police when he returned home on June 10, 2002 and was arrested by officers Li Guangxi and Nan Jihong of Yongjing County, which is under the jurisdiction of Linxia. He was tortured at the Yongjing County Detention Center and given one year of forced labor.

Mr. Li returned to Xi’an after he was released, but was arrested again on January 16, 2006 by officers of the Dengjiapo Police Station. Despite the freezing weather, Yan Meiming, the director of the Yanta District Domestic Security Division, ordered his subordinates to strip off Mr. Li’s clothes, pour cold water over him and beat him with wooden clubs.

During the 45-day detention at the Yanta District Detention Center, Mr. Li was forced to do hard labor without pay and was deprived of sleep. He was given another one-year term at the Zaozihe Forced Labor Camp in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province. The labor camp guards also deprived him of sleep, held him in solitary confinement and forced him to sit on a small stool motionless for long periods of time, with his back straight and his eyes looking ahead.

Torture reenactment: Sitting on a small stool

Mr. Li later landed a job as a real estate project engineer at the Shenglong Plaza in Xi’an, only to be arrested again on June 28, 2011 by police from his hometown in Linxia. After six months in detention, he was sentenced to four years by the Linxia County Court. He was taken to the Tianshui Prison on January 9, 2012.

Mr. Li wasn’t the only one in his family to be persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. His father, Mr. Li Jiankui, 73 and a retired nuclear industry geology worker, who credited Falun Gong for curing his silicosis and other ailments, was repeatedly arrested and detained. He had a stroke due to torture in custody and suffered severe side effects. He was arrested again on November 25, 2020 and held at the Linxia County Detention Center. He is currently serving a prison term at the Lanzhou Prison.