(Minghui.org) The Chikan District Court in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province sentenced two local women to three years in prison for their faith in Falun Gong, Minghui.org learned recently.
The wrongful conviction of Ms. Yu Mei, 58, and Ms. Wu Shaochuan, 62, stemmed from their arrests on May 14, 2023. They talked to people about Falun Gong that day and were reported by a college student. The police arrested them at 5 p.m. and took them to the Cunjin Police Station.
During the interrogation, both women were handcuffed, body-searched, and had their pictures and fingerprints taken against their will. Ms. Yu refused to comply and was held down by several officers. They slit her finger and pressed her fingerprints.
The police next raided the two women’s homes and gave them 15 days of detention at the Zhanjiang City Lockup (also known as Zhanjiang City Drug Rehabilitation Center).
Ms. Yu and Ms. Wu were taken back into custody on the morning of September 16, 2024, while they were buying deli food together. The arresting officers from the Haitian Police Station and the Cunjin Police Station snatched Ms. Yu’s key and raided her home. Another group of officers smashed open Ms. Wu’s door and searched her place too. Both women had their Falun Gong books and other belongings confiscated. Their families only saw a red stamp on the so-called “search warrants” that the police quickly showed them. There was no signatures as required by law.
Ms. Yu and Ms. Wu were taken to the Zhanjiang City Detention Center. They stood trial at the Chikan District Court on March 19, 2025. Judges Mo Kaicheng, Yang Yingying, and Wu Cuiping were present. No prosecution witness appeared in court to accept cross examination.
Ms. Yu and Ms. Wu were later both sentenced to three years at an unknown time. This is not the first time that they’ve been targeted for their faith. Ms. Yu previously served a two-year labor camp term and another four-year prison term. See the related reports for details of her persecution.
Ms. Wu’s ex-husband abandoned her when their daughter was not even one year old. He also stole all her money. She was devastated and her health went downhill. She developed vertigo, migraines, mouth ulcers (which even made her unable to drink water when severe), rhinitis, insomnia, sciatica, back pain, breast hyperplasia, and other ailments. She was listless, withdrawn, and confused about her life. After she came across Falun Gong in 1998, her symptoms disappeared in one month. She had a rosy complexion and became cheerful. Her once heavy legs became light and she walked briskly again.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, Ms. Wu was repeatedly targeted and arrested multiple times.
Ms. Wu was tending to her vendor booth one day in May 2001 when Huang Zuhua, head of the Chikan District 610 Office, instructed community workers Zheng Guanzi and Zhang (first name unknown) and several others with unknown identities to harass her. They ordered her to attend a brainwashing class. She refused to comply and they carried her to a car and drove her to a local hotel.
Huang and He Chao then bombarded Ms. Wu with propaganda smearing Falun Gong. Around noon time, she demanded to be released as she needed to close her vendor booth and go home to cook lunch for her first-grader daughter. Huang said no because she still refused to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Wu’s daughter could not find her at the vendor booth after school. The little girl then decided to check with her mother’s friend. An acquaintance of Ms. Wu’s spotted the girl walking very close to a water reservoir. He brought her home and fed her lunch.
At 5 p.m., Ms. Wu managed to escape from the hotel and went into hiding. She did not dare to return home until one month later. Her daughter said, “Mom, I never dared to lock the door at night for fear you would not be able to get in. I just used a chair to block the door.” The little girl was also harassed by the police every night.
Huang even went to the girl’s school, Zhanjiang City 15th Elementary School, and forced students there to sign their names to defame Falun Gong and its founder. Ms. Wu’s daughter refused to sign and became a target. Her teachers kept her at school after hours every day to give talks to her. They promised to waive her tuition if she signed her name.
In March 2002 when a new semester began, Ms. Wu’s daughter was not allowed to return to school. Ms. Wu pleaded with the school administrators many times but they always said no. She turned to her street committee, which eventually helped her daughter return to school. By then it was more than one month after school started.
Officer Pang Junjie from the Zhonghua Police Station led several people to Ms. Wu’s home after 5 p.m. on September 30, 2002. She was not in but rushed home after learning what was going on. Even before she reached the door, she heard her daughter’s crying. She condemned the police for terrifying the young girl. They replied that her daughter refused to open the door for them. They ordered her to go with them to have a talk with their chief and she refused.
The police put her, her daughter, and her bike into their car and drove to a hotel, where Huang and Li Yu were waiting. Ms. Wu said that her daughter must go to school and they sent her daughter back home.
Officer He Chao threatened to put Ms. Wu and her daughter in a labor camp if she refused to renounce her faith. She was not released until December 30, 2002. When she returned home, she saw dirty clothes and books scattered on the floor. Her daughter smelled like she had not taken a shower for days.
A bit past 9 p.m. on September 25, 2005, Huang led dozens of armed officers and broke into Ms. Wu’s home. They confiscated her Falun Gong books, a computer used for her daughter’s study and a tape recorder. Ms. Wu, her daughter, her sister-in-law Ms. Chen Aizhen, and three out of town Falun Gong practitioners who happened to be visiting her were all taken to a brainwashing center.
After five days, Ms. Wu and Ms. Chen were moved to the Mazhang District Second Detention Center. Ms. Wu went on a hunger strike on the second day. By the fifth day, she could no longer stand or take care of herself. On the eighth day, Fu Peiyang and another officer came to interrogate her. She could not even sit at the time and was helped out to the interrogation room by two inmates. Fu accused her of faking and the inmates said she was indeed as weak as that. Fu finally believed that was the case but still deceived Ms. Wu into signing a document giving her two years of forced labor.
The next day the detention center director came, and he became scared upon seeing how fragile Ms. Wu was. He notified Fu to pick her up. Fu did not show up. The director then had a community worker take her back home. Ms. Wu went to work at a factory on the third day of her release because she needed money to support her and her daughter. Twenty days later the same community worker asked her to report to the police department. She refused and the worker called in the police. Her factory coworkers and supervisor helped her escape. Huang instructed the street committee to monitor her home and harass her daughter.
Under Huang’s directive, Ai Ying, a local community secretary, and two young women deceived Ms. Wu’s daughter into opening the door on September 5, 2007, by claiming to be selling health insurance. Upon noticing Ms. Wu was home, they immediately called Huang. Ms. Wu was arrested and taken to a brainwashing center, where she held for two months.
Due to her long-term persecution, Ms. Wu’s daughter was also bullied and discriminated against at school. A once lively girl became withdrawn and a secondary victim of the persecution of Falun Gong.
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