(Minghui.org) A native of Shulan City, Jilin Province, is serving time at the Guangzhou Prison in Guangdong Province for his faith in Falun Gong, Minghui.org learned recently.
Mr. Cheng Lei, 59, was arrested on October 29, 2025, by Guangzhou City Domestic Security Office agents. During the physical exam required for detention, he was found to have severe heart conditions and had a stent put in at the police hospital. Even before he recovered from the surgery, the police took him to the Guangzhou Prison. It is unclear when he was indicted, tried, or sentenced. His exact prison term also remains to be investigated.
This is not the first time that Mr. Cheng has been targeted for his faith. He previously served one forced labor term and two prison terms totaling nine years and three months.
1.5 Years of Forced Labor (2000 – 2001)
Mr. Cheng, a former employee of Kaiyuan Forest Farm in Shulan City, went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in February 2000. He was arrested and given one year of forced labor at the Huanxiling Labor Camp in Jilin City, Jilin Province. Because he held firm to his faith, the labor camp extended his term by six months.
4 Years of Prison Sentence (2001 – 2005)
Mr. Cheng was released from the labor camp in August 2001, only to be arrested soon afterward. He was sentenced to four years on December 28 that year and admitted to the Tiebei Prison in Changchun City, Jilin Province.
In early 2002, the prison authorities dispatched people to a prison in southern China to learn how to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. After those people returned to Jilin, they established a special management office to target jailed practitioners. The office grouped all jailed practitioners in a special division dubbed “molding ward.” Six to eight inmates were assigned to monitor each practitioner around the clock. The guards incentivized the inmates to abuse the practitioners with term reductions.
The torture methods used on the practitioners included beatings with hammers, wooden boards, and shoulder poles; forced standing for long hours; solitary confinement; hanging up; pricking with needles; brushing fingers with toothbrushes; sleep deprivation; and exposure to the elements (such as standing by an open window with thin layers of clothes in the winter).
One particular torture tactic involved welding two 476-pound metal barrels to the door of a solitary confinement cell and banging the barrels with metal rods once every few minutes. The practitioner held in the cell was thus unable to sleep at all.
The guards instructed an inmate to place a blade under the bed cover of Mr. Cheng’s and claimed that he was intending to commit suicide. Falun Gong taught its practitioners to cherish life, and Mr. Cheng refused to write statements to renounce his faith. The guards put him in a solitary confinement cell for over two months, during which time he was only given two meals (corn paste) each day
On January 4, 2004, Mr. Cheng, who had been on hunger strike in protest of the persecution for several days, was savagely beaten by team lead Liu Zhandong and instructor Han Kewei.
Mr. Cheng was released in August 2005.
Three Years and Nine Months of Prison Term (2012 – 2016)
Mr. Cheng later moved to Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, to do odd jobs. He was arrested there on June 4, 2012. His family was not allowed to visit him at the Yuexiu Detention Center or given any updates about his case status. They learned later that he was sentenced to three years and nine months. He was released in March 2016.
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