(Minghui.org) A 73-year-old woman in Huludao City, Liaoning Province, was arrested on April 2, 2025. She may serve a three-year prison sentence given to her in 2013.
Ms. Gong Changlan’s ordeal began on September 7, 2011, when she was seized by officers from the Lianshan District Police Department. They targeted her after failing to catch her husband, Mr. Wu Bo, who, like her, also practiced Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Gong went on a hunger strike in protest and was released on bail. She and her husband were later indicted on August 7, 2013 by the Lianshan District Procuratorate. The Lianshan District Court sentenced Ms. Gong and Mr. Wu to three years.
The couple went into hiding and were put on the wanted list. Mr. Wu later died in 2016. The police seized Ms. Wu around June 2022 while she was doing a COVID-19 test. She failed the required physical examination for detention and was released on house arrest for six months.
The Lianshan District Court did not take further action at the end of the six-month house arrest, but then issued an order this year to “pursue the case.” The police arrested Ms. Gong on April 2, 2025. As she didn’t serve the three-year sentence given in 2013, she is now facing jail time.
This is not the first time that Ms. Gong has been targeted for practicing Falun Gong, which she took up in 1996 and credits for curing her heart disease, myocardial ischemia (reduced blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart muscle), stomach disease, rheumatism, and long-term constipation. She also became a much better stepmother to her husband’s two children.
After the persecution began on July 20, 1999, Ms. Gong went to Beijing three days later to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested and taken back to Liaoning. She was held at her workplace, the Huludao Zinc Factory, and had to attend a brainwashing session.
The Longgang District Police Department and the Dongjie Police Station arrested Ms. Gong at work in June 2000. The police interrogated her with torture. She was held at a detention center for 19 days. Afterwards, her employer removed her from a managerial position. She was assigned to a workshop and only given a meager stipend of 230 yuan. It is unclear how long her pay was suspended.
A total of 24 employees from the zinc factory, all Falun Gong practitioners, were taken to a brainwashing center set up in a hotel in October 2000. Ms. Gong was one of them and she was suspended for one year after the session.
Ms. Gong went to Beijing to appeal again on December 19, 2000 and was arrested. After being taken back to Liaoning, she was held at the Huludao Lockup for 15 days. Her employer then took her straight to the same brainwashing center in the hotel. She went on a hunger strike in protest and was released three days later.
The zinc factory held another brainwashing session on May 10, 2001. Ms. Gong and her husband went into hiding to avoid being taken there again.
Ms. Gong returned home on October 13, 2003 to pack some clothes, only to be reported by a community worker. The police soon arrived in five cruisers. She refused to open the door and the standoff lasted five hours. It is unclear whether she was eventually arrested.
Ms. Gong and her husband were arrested at her cousin’s home on April 28, 2004. They were held at the Huludao City Detention Center for eight and half months. The Lianshan District Court then sentenced her to seven years and her husband to six years. During the required physical examination, she was found to have hypertension and myocardial ischemia. The Liaoning Province Women’s Prison refused to admit her and the court allowed her to serve her time outside of prison (with her term running from April 28, 2004, to April 27, 2011).
While still serving time outside of prison, Ms. Gong and her husband were arrested at her cousin’s home again on December 8, 2009. The arrests were led by chief Wang Jie of the Longgang District Police Department and carried out by more than ten officers. They took the couple to the Huludao Detention Center. Her husband was released a few days later but she remained in detention.
The Lianshan District Court ordered Ms. Gong to complete her seven-year term in prison and the police transferred her to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on January 23, 2010. She was released on April 27, 2011.
Less than five months later, Ms. Gong was arrested again on September 7, 2011 when the police failed to catch her husband. While she was released on bail 15 days later, she and her husband were both sentenced to three years on August 7, 2013. They went into hiding and her husband died in 2016. She was taken back into custody on April 2, 2025, and may face jail time as the Lianshan District Court vowed to “pursue her case.”
Related Report:
Police from Huludao City of Liaoning Province Arrest Eight Falun Dafa Practitioners
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