Repeatedly Deemed Unfit for Detention, 73-Year-Old Tianjin Woman Taken Back Into Custody for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) Ms. Yao Zhifeng, 73, from Tianjin who had been under house arrest was taken back into custody around mid-May 2025, to serve a four-year-three-month prison sentence given on October 31, 2024. Ms. Yao’s family was not notified of her whereabouts. It’s not clear if she’s been admitted to prison.

Ms. Yao’s prison sentence stemmed from her arrest on May 24, 2022, after the secretary of Zhangzhuang Village in Daliang Town, Wuqing District, reported her for distributing materials exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of her faith, Falun Gong. He also took her pictures. The arresting officers from the Daliang Town Police Station later released her on a one-year bail.

An official named Gao Jin from the Wuqing District Procuratorate led two woman prosecutors and two officers from the Daliang Town Police Station (badge numbers were 43-2384 and 43-1162) to Ms. Yang’s home on May 25, 2023. They took her pictures and videotaped her. Since her one-year bail had just ended the day before, they threatened to put her in jail unless she signed a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She firmly refused to comply and urged them to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners.

To avoid being arrested, Ms. Yao went into hiding. The police harassed her loved ones once every other week, disrupting their normal life.

Officers from the Yucai Road Police Station in Yangcun Town, Wuqing District arrested Ms. Yao around May 2024 and turned her over to the Daliang Town Police Station. She was given a physical examination on July 12, 2024 and was deemed unfit for detention. She was released on house arrest with her local Hebeitun Town Police Station in charge of monitoring her. Less then two weeks later on July 21, the police harassed her at home and ordered her to report to the procuratorate for deposition. It is unclear whether she went.

More than twenty officers from the Daliang Town Police Station and the Hebeitun Town Police Station broke into Ms. Yao’s home on September 14, 2024 and took her to the Xiaoyangzhuang Village office to be tried by the Wuqing District Court.

After the court hearing, Ms. Yao was taken to a police hospital for a physical examination. She was allowed to go home due to her poor health.

Ms. Yao was sentenced to four years and three months with a 17,000-yuan fine on October 31, 2024. She again failed the required physical examination and was put on six-month house arrest.

Deputy chief Wang and officer Wu Yanfa from the Daliang Town Police Station, along with a female doctor, came to Ms. Yao’s home on February 14, 2025. They lifted her house arrest even though there were still two months left and threatened to put her in jail. They took her blood pressure but left without arresting her. Both officers wore plainclothes and also drove an unmarked car.

Around mid-May 2025, a group of officers seized Ms. Yao from home and took her for a physical examination. She was deemed unfit for detention and was released. Another group of officers came the next day and took her for another physical examination. She didn’t return home that day.

The police still have not notified Ms. Yao’s family of her whereabouts. Her loved ones fear retaliation from the authorities and do not dare tell anyone about her situation. Minghui.org correspondents suspect that she might have already been sent to prison to serve the term.

Ms. Yao took up Falun Gong on August 1, 2007 and credits it for resolving her high blood pressure, heart diseases, high blood sugar, and stomach problems. She was previously detained for ten days in late December 2009. It was deep winter but the local detention center guards did not allow her to wear a sweater even though her cell had no heat. They also forced her to sleep on a wooden board at night.

Ms. Yao went to a local fair to distribute Falun Gong informational materials on June 9, 2011 and was arrested. She was held at the Hebeitun Town Police Station for several hours before she was released. Her family and the village head promised on her behalf that she would not pass out Falun Gong materials.