(Minghui.org) A Tianjin resident was taken to the Tianjin Women’s Prison on March 10, 2021 to serve time for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Guo Yiqian was arrested on September 3, 2019 and detained at the Wuqing District Detention Center. She was sentenced to a two-year prison term by the Wuqing District Court in February 2021.

Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Guo and her husband Mr. Li Wen, who also practices Falun Gong, were arrested in July 2001. Ms. Guo was given five years at the Tianjin Women’s Prison and Mr. Li was sentenced to seven years at the Tianjin Prison.

The inmates at Tianjin Women’s Prison closely monitored Falun Gong practitioners. Sometimes the guards forced the practitioners to stand from 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. or sit on a small stool without moving. Some practitioners were subjected to intensive brainwashing aimed at forcing them to give up their faith. Others were forced to do unpaid labor, and when they came back to the cell after a long day of work, the inmates verbally abused and insulted them. When practitioners resisted the persecution, the guards and inmates beat them.

Ms. Guo was subjected to beatings, hanging by handcuffed wrists, and forced feeding in the prison. She was once held to the floor and beaten by four inmates, before being hung up from the bunk bed frame.

Mr. Li was also tortured in the prison. He was forced to sit on a small stool measuring one inch wide, one inch tall, and three-inches long without moving. After only a few days of such sitting torture, his buttocks festered.

Torture instrument: Small stool

Mr. Li was arrested again on July 30, 2015 for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. He was sentenced to another three year in prison by the Hexi Court on July 15, 2016, and served time in Binhai Prison.

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution