Twice Jailed for a Total of 12.5 Years, 62-Year-Old Hunan Man Gets Another Two Years for His Faith in Falun Gong
(Minghui.org) A 62-year-old resident of Yongxing County, Hunan Province was sentenced to two years for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Xu Yunyan was arrested during a police sweep of local Falun Gong practitioners on July 20, 2024. The police took his fingerprints, footprints, and blood samples against his will, before taking him to the Yongxing County Detention Center.
Minghui.org learned of Mr. Xu’s prison sentence in early June 2025, but further details of his prosecution remain unknown.
This is not the first time that Mr. Xu has been targeted for his faith. He has been repeatedly arrested over the past two decades. He served a seven-year prison term from April 20, 2003 to April 20, 2010. His leg was fractured and teeth broken as a result of torture in prison. (See the first related report, below, for details of his ordeal.)
After another arrest on July 10, 2015, Mr. Xu was sentenced to five and a half years and admitted to the Wangling Prison in early 2016. He was again subjected to various forms of abuse during his second prison term.
Mr. Xu was initially held in Division Six and forced to do hard labor for more than ten hours a day. On November 11, 2016, he was moved to an “education team” for intensive brainwashing. He was forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong every day for several months. As Mr. Xu remained firm in his faith, the guards cuffed one of his hands to the upper bunk of a bed and the other to the lower bunk of another bed. They kept him restrained like that for days without allowing him to sleep. He became extremely weak and eventually wrote a statement against his will to renounce Falun Gong.
Torture illustration: handcuffed to two beds and deprived of sleep
In August 2019, Mr. Xu was put in the Strict Management Team for shouting “Falun Dafa is good.” During the day, he was held in a metal cage and forced to sit on a big ball with his hands on his knees. Any slight movement would result in another torture, with his legs forcibly pulled apart in a split. The pain was unbearable.
Torture illustration: leg splits
When he was not kept in the cage, Mr. Xu was put in a 43-square-foot room that had a cement platform and a toilet. He was given very little to eat and only allowed to drink water three times a day (for a total of one cup of water). It was very hot and his clothes were soaked in sweat and smelled badly. The guards would put on a mask while passing by the cell. Due to the lack of water intake, Mr. Xu had severe constipation and sometimes had to remove his stool with his fingers.
Related Reports:
Mr. Xu Yunyan's Leg Fractured and Teeth Broken during Seven Years in Prison
Mr. Xu Yunyan Arrested for Filing Complaint Against Jiang Zemin
Wangling Prison Guards Brag about Being Experienced in Torturing Falun Gong Practitioners