(Minghui.org) A woman in Handan City, Hebei Province, along with her daughter and son-in-law have been detained since their arrests on February 19, 2025, for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Detention center officials aren’t allowing their lawyers to visit them.
More than 20 officers from the Fudong and Luochengtou police stations broke into the family’s shared residence with the help of a professional locksmith at around 11 p.m. on February 19. Without showing any IDs, the police handcuffed Ms. Yang Fenglian and her daughter, Ms. Du Likun. When Ms. Du’s husband, Mr. Ma Yongxiao, tried to reason with the police, they carried him into the police car before returning to raid the place, which they did until the following day at noon. The family’s computer, printer, and some cash were confiscated. Their two cars and a bike were also impounded.
The police claimed the order to arrest the family came from the provincial government. “We will leave you alone if you just practice [Falun Gong] at home. But if you go out on the streets to distribute materials, we will arrest you,” they said.
Ms. Yang, 70, and Ms. Du, 40, were taken to the Handan City Third Detention Center the next day, while Mr. Ma was admitted to the Handan City Second Detention Center. They all held hunger strikes to protest the persecution and were taken to a hospital for force-feeding. Ms. Du developed high blood pressure and Mr. Ma was in serious condition after having a seizure.
The practitioners’ family hired three lawyers for them. Two of the lawyers went to the Handan City Third Detention Center on the afternoon of February 28 to visit the mother and daughter. The detention center directed them to Yin Yuefei, the police officer in charge of their case, for permission. Yin denied the lawyers’ request to visit. Ms. Yang’s lawyer pointed out that the police don’t have the authority to determine whether he could visit his clients or not, and he vowed to file complaints against the police and the detention center for such a blatant violation of law. Only then was Ms. Yang’s lawyer allowed to visit her.
The Handan City Third Detention Center contacted both lawyers on March 1 and “explained” that the reason that they didn’t initially approve the visitation request was because Ms. Yang and Ms. Du were suspected of “undermining national security.” The Hanshan Police Department also echoed the decision to deny the lawyers’ visitation requests.
The lawyers argued that their clients detention notices listed different charges, which didn’t include “undermining national security.” Even if they did, it is still not up to the police to decide whether the lawyers can visit their clients. They questioned the police’s motives for changing the charges only after the practitioners had hired lawyers.
Meanwhile, the police kept harassing Ms. Yang’s husband and attempted to force him to fire the lawyers. He refused to comply and demanded that the police return the cash confiscated from the family, but to no avail.
Mother and Daughter’s Past Persecution
Ms. Yang, a retired senior test engineer at the Department of Urban Construction, Hebei Institute of Architecture and Technology, took up Falun Gong in early 1999. Many of her long-term ailments, including cancer, soon disappeared. After witnessing her changes, Ms. Du also began practicing Falun Gong. After the persecution started months later, the mother and daughter were repeatedly targeted for upholding their faith.
Ms. Yang and Ms. Du went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on October 1, 2000, and were arrested Toniananmen Square. They were detained in the Yanqing Detention Center before being transferred to the Handan Liaison Office in Beijing. They were then taken to the Handan City Second Detention Center on October 4. The detention center guards shocked Ms. Du, then 16, with high-voltage electric batons four times, specifically on her inner thighs, armpits, and the back of her head. She was also forced to wear heavy shackles, which severely injured her ankles.
Ms. Yang was admitted to the Shijiazhuang Women’s Forced Labor Camp in late 2000 to serve a one-year term. She was hung up, suspended by her wrists, and deprived of sleep.
Torture illustration: Being hung up
Ms. Du remained in the detention center. She held a hunger strike to protest in early 2001, and the guards force-fed her half a basin of food, which caused her extreme discomfort. The guards later held her in solitary confinement for over a month because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. By the time she was released on July 16, 2001, after her family paid the detention center 3,000 yuan, she had been fired by her high school.
The authorities attempted to arrest Ms. Yang again on February 27, 2002, but she escaped and returned home. She didn’t dare to leave home for the next few months. The police came a few times, attempting to arrest her, but she refused to open the door.
The mother and daughter were arrested together again on the evening of November 3, 2002, after the police used a scissor lift to break into their home on the sixth floor. After they were taken to the Kaiyuan Police Station, Ms. Yang was shocked with electric batons for over an hour. Her hands, face, lips, and neck were severely burned. She had a blister the size of an egg on her hand.
Both women were taken to the Handan City Second Detention Center the next day. Despite Ms. Yang being extremely weak and unable to take care of herself after the electric shocks, the police still detained her for nine months. She was released on August 5, 2005, after having 2,000 yuan extorted from her.
Ms. Du was released after two months after having 6,000 yuan extorted from her. Before allowing her to go home, the police held her in a hotel they managed for ten days and forced her to pay over 100 yuan per day.
Ms. Yang was arrested again on September 27, 2003. She held a hunger strike to protest and was force-fed. The police slapped he in the face, breaking several teeth and making her vomit blood. She wasn’t released until April 2, 2004.
During Ms. Yang’s detention, Ms. Du was seized by the police on December 10, 2003, for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was force-fed in the Handan City First Detention Center after she held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The guards taped her face and handcuffed her hands behind her back to prevent her from pulling the feeding tube out of her stomach. She was left sitting on the cold concrete ground overnight, unable to move. She vomited blood the next day. The guards later stopped force-feeding her and fed her intravenously instead.
The police extorted 8,000 yuan from Ms. Du’s family on December 18, 2003, and ordered them to pay another 1,000 yuan for her physical exam the next day, when she was found to have severe myocardial ischemia. Between then and April 2004, she was held at the Hebei Province Legal Education Center, a brainwashing center in disguise. The guards deprived her of sleep, wrote words defaming Falun Gong on her body, and forced her to sit in the full lotus position for extended hours. They also tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong by threatening to sentence her to a three-year term.
Although Ms. Du was released in April 2004, she was still given a three-year labor camp term shortly thereafter. The police again extorted funds from her family. While her labor camp term wasn’t enforced, she was fired again by another high school.
Ms. Yang was arrested another time on October 15, 2004. She was forced to live away from home to hide from the police after being released, only to be arrested again while visiting a friend on March 28, 2005. She was detained for four days this time.
The police raided Ms. Yang’s home and confiscated her computer, printer, and satellite dish that the family used to receive uncensored TV programs from countries outside of China.
Ms. Yang was arrested again at home on August 13, 2007, and taken to the Handan City Second Detention Center the next day. She was released on January 16, 2008.
Ms. Du and her husband were arrested on January 28, 2015, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police strip-searched her at the Shahe City Domestic Security Division. They released the couple the next day after forcing their family to pay 20,000 yuan.
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