After Years of Incarceration and Torture, Ningxia Couple Arrested for Their Faith Again

(Minghui.org) After having endured many years of persecution for their faith in Falun Gong, a married couple in Yinchuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region, were arrested one more time on October 24, 2020, and are now facing prosecution again.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Mr. Zheng Yongxin and his wife Ms. Yang Jie went to Zhongwei City in the same region in October 2020 to visit Ms. Yang’s parents but were targeted in a local group arrest on October 24. It has now been confirmed that nine of the arrested practitioners have had their arrests approved.

Among them, Mr. Zheng, Ms. Yang, Ms. Huang Yuxia, Ms. Chang Xiue, and Ms. Wen Jing are held at the Zhongwei City Detention Center. Ms. Jing Yuling is detained at the Yinchuan City Detention Center. Ms. Wang Shunqin is at Shizuishan City Detention Center. Ms. Wen Yuxiu and Ms. Zhang Yulian are under house arrest.

Prior to their latest arrests, Mr. Zheng, a 65-year-old retired Yinchuan City Power Bureau employee, has been repeatedly arrested and detained. He was once given three years of forced labor and because he held a hunger strike one year into his term, the authorities sentenced him to six years and transferred him to prison. His workplace fired him shortly after. His former wife also divorced him and he was forced into displacement. Due to pressure from the persecution, his father passed away in 2014.

Ms. Yang, a 51-year-old former life insurance company employee, took up Falun Gong in 1997. For upholding her faith, she served five years in labor camps and a prison term of three and a half years. Her former husband divorced her due to the persecution and she married Mr. Zheng in 2010.

Below are the past persecution accounts of Mr. Zheng and Ms. Yang.

Mr. Zheng Yongxin’s Persecution

Mr. Zheng was arrested at work on August 20, 2000. The police took him back home and ransacked his residence. His Falun Gong books and lecture videos were confiscated. While he was held at the local detention center, the guards forced him to do unpaid labor.

Mr. Zheng was later given three years at the Baitugangzi Forced Labor Camp. He was forced to load concrete, coal, and rocks day and night. Every day when he went to bed, his body and fingers were in constant pain due to the heavy labor. In the morning, it always took a great deal of effort for him to get up.

The guards only provided him with one work uniform. It’s always soaked with sweat after a day of work. In the winter, the uniform was still wet by the next morning and it felt like entering a cold room when Mr. Zheng put it on.

When the detainees failed to fulfill the quota, the guards whipped them with leather belts. Some detainees (non-Falun Gong practitioners) were unable to bear the torture and committed suicide.

When Mr. Zheng held a hunger strike at the labor camp on November 12, 2001, to protest the persecution, the authorities sentenced him to six years in prison as punishment. He was transferred to the Wuzhong Prison and also fired by his workplace.

In the prison, the guards put him in solitary confinement and arranged for nine guards to take turns watching him. Upon finding that him doing the Falun Gong exercises, the guards cuffed his hands to the sides of the bed. The handcuffs were so tight that they cut into his flesh. Only after his hands turned blue did they remove the handcuffs. When he was sleeping at night, the guards cuffed his feet to the bed frame.

When Mr. Zheng’s term expired in November 2007, the Ningxia 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, refused to release him and transferred him to a brainwashing center, where he was held for an additional three months.

Mr. Zheng was arrested again in June 2008 prior to the Beijing Olympics and detained for a month. The police arrested him one more time on August 28, 2012, and detained him for a month. His pension was also suspended for a few months in 2018.

Mr. Zheng and Ms. Yang were arrested together on September 17, 2019, and held at the Sunjiatan Lockup for 14 days. Ms. Yang was released on October 1 and Mr. Zheng was held at the police station for one more day and released on October 2.

Prior to their latest arrest in October 2020, a dozen officers broke into his home on September 2, 2020, and ordered him to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong. When he refused to comply, the officers ransacked his home and held him at the Funingjie Police Station until the evening of September 3.

Ms. Yang Jie’s Persecution

After the communist regime ordered the persecution on July 20, 1999, Ms. Yang went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was arrested in August while she was still in Beijing and taken back to Ningxia. The police released her after extorting 3,000 yuan from her.

Only a few days after she returned home, she was sought out by the police for accessing information about Falun Gong on the internet and was arrested again. This time, she was detained for a month and fired by the life insurance company she worked at.

Ms. Yang returned to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong again in October 2000 and was arrested one more time. When she went on a hunger strike in the detention facility, her hands were cuffed behind her back and her feet were shackled. The guards took her to the hospital for force-feeding and tortured her.

She was later taken back to Zhongwei City and held at two detention centers for one month each, before being given two years at Ningxia Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

On September 19, 2001, only 16 days after she was released, she was arrested again at a relative’s home. The police gave her another two-year labor camp term after one month of detention.

In the labor camp, Ms. Yang was force-fed when she held a hunger strike to protest the persecution. She was also forced to do unpaid labor, beaten, hung up, and shocked with electric batons on her face, neck, and mouth. The guards also tied her hands behind her back to a tree and left her standing there under the scorching sun. When the two-year term expired, the guards extended her term for another year and she barely survived the torture.

Ms. Yang was arrested one more time in September 2005 and sentenced to 3.5 years by the Shizuishan Court. She was forced to do unpaid labor, beaten, and had her hands cuffed behind her back at the Ningxia Women’s Prison. The Ningxia 610 Office held her at a brainwashing center for three more months when her term expired in March 2009.

Following Ms. Yang and Mr. Zheng’s arrest on August 28, 2012, Ms. Yang suffered a serious medical condition after seven days of detention and was then released.

When she visited a friend in Qingtongxia City on March 23, 2016, she was arrested by the police on the look out. She was interrogated and held in custody for a day.

During the time when Ms. Yang was incarcerated, the police constantly harassed her parents. The tremendous mental pressure took a toll on their health and they constantly fell sick and were hospitalized. The medical fees they had spent in the past few years totaled more than 100,000 yuan.

Related reports:

Many Falun Gong Practitioners from Yinchuan City, Ningxia Autonomous Region Arrested and Harassed

Ningxia Autonomous Region Political and Legal Committee and 610 Office Behind the Arrests of Many Falun Gong Practitioners

Persecution in Ningxia Autonomous Region: Ms. Yang Jie in Critical Condition