After 11.5 Years of Incarceration, Shaanxi Woman Sentenced to Another Five Years for Her Faith

(Minghui.org) Nearly four years after a Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province resident was arrested and detained incommunicado for practicing Falun Gong, her family recently learned that she had been secretly sentenced to five years.

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

Ms. Xiao Yanping was arrested on August 22, 2018 for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was held at the Hantai Detention Center before being secretly sentenced and transferred to the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison. The guards tortured her and forced her to do unpaid labor. With one year remaining on her term, her son is longing for her safe return.

Prior Lengthy Incarceration

Ms. Xiao used to work at an instrument factory. Before taking up Falun Gong in October 1996, she struggled with long-term insomnia, headache and a severe heart condition. All of her conditions disappeared after she started learning the Falun Gong exercises.

Because she held firm to her faith in the face of the persecution, Ms. Xiao was arrested six times, resulting in two labor camp terms totaling 3.5 years and a prison term of 8 years. 

On September 4, 2002, only four days after Ms. Xiao’s son started studying at a top-ranked high school, she was arrested at work. She was accused of distributing informational materials about Falun Gong and given two years of forced labor. Her workplace also fired her. The authorities extorted 20,000 yuan from her husband and released her eight months ahead of time.

Her son was discriminated against at school due to the persecution of his mother. He was so traumatized that his grades quickly dropped and he had to drop out eventually. 

Ms. Xiao was arrested again on February 23, 2005 for putting up posters about Falun Gong. She was given 1.5 years of forced labor and taken to the Xi’an Women’s Forced Labor Camp in August 2005. 

During her labor camp term, her husband died from a car accident. Her father’s health declined from worrying about her and he passed away in 2005.

While Ms. Xiao’s son joined the military later on, he was dismissed in 2007, after his supervisor found out about Ms. Xiao’s practicing Falun Gong. It was such a heavy blow that he attempted to commit suicide, but was fortunately rescued. 

Ms. Xiao was arrested one more time on May 7, 2008, at her office supply shop. She was interrogated for six days and not allowed to sleep. She was sentenced to eight years on March 27, 2009 and taken to the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison on June 27, 2009. 

While imprisoned, she was beaten, humiliated and denied restroom use. An inmate monitored her around the clock and forbade her from speaking to anyone. She was also forced to perform unpaid labor for more than 10 hours a day and sometimes until late at night.

Related report:

Shaanxi Woman Arrested 8 Months after Suing Jiang Zemin for Her 9-Year Imprisonment