(Minghui.org) A 58-year-old woman in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, was arrested on September 19, 2023, for talking to people about Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

The arresting officers from the Qingyunpu Domestic Security Office raided Ms. Xia Mingjin’s home and took her to the Nanchang City First Detention Center, where she remains.

This is not the first time that Ms. Xia has been targeted for her faith in Falun Gong. She was given one year of forced labor in 2011 and sentenced to two years following her arrest in 2018. After she was released from prison in 2020, she still faced constant harassment from the police. Prior to her latest arrest, she was held at a brainwashing center for ten days in June 2021.

Taking Up Falun Gong

Ms. Xia used to suffer from severe sinusitis and was told that there was no cure except for surgery—and even that was not a guarantee. In December 1997, she heard her husband’s colleagues talking about Falun Gong and decided to give it a try. She soon recovered.

Out of fear, Ms. Xia gave up practicing after the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999. Her health kept deteriorating in the years that followed and she also developed severe heart problems. She often had tightness in her chest and would gasp for air. She decided to resume practicing Falun Gong in 2007 and soon regained her health. Ms. Xia became steadfast in her faith and started to raise awareness of the persecution, leading to several arrests.

One Year and 17 Days of Forced Labor

Ms. Xia was arrested for distributing informational DVDs about Falun Gong in a village on September 25, 2011. She was taken to the Nanchang County Detention Center. The police went to her son’s home four days later to harass him.

Ms. Xia was given one year of forced labor and transferred to Jiangxi Women’s Forced Labor Camp on October 30, 2011. As soon as she entered the labor camp, the guards made her stand for three days and two nights. After that, two guards instructed inmates to drag her around the lobby. She was not allowed to close her eyes or the inmates would flick her eyelids with their fingers. At the end of the torture, Ms. Xia’s legs were severely swollen and both her eyes were red and painful.

Over the next three months, Ms. Xia was forced to watch videos slandering Falun Gong from morning to midnight. Due to pressure from the labor camp, her aunt and son tried to force her to renounce her faith.

In the labor camp, Ms. Xia witnessed how Falun Gong practitioners were confined to a small dark room and often humiliated, sworn at, and beaten by the guards and inmates. Those who refused to “transform” were locked up in a solitary confinement room and not allowed to buy daily necessities or use the restroom and had to adhere to a five-minute limit for showering and doing laundry.

The Ministry of Labor’s law stipulated that inmates’ working hours should not exceed six hours a day. In actuality, every inmate had to work for over 10 hours a day. The hours would be extended if they didn’t finish the quota for the day.

When Ms. Xia was held at the labor camp, she was forced to assemble thousands of calculator parts, resulting in severe pain in her right thumb that kept her from falling asleep at night. Her eyesight got worse and she lost weight.

When Ms. Xia’s son and daughter-in-law visited her in March 2012, the deputy director and team leader sowed discord between them by telling the couple that she was not allowed to go home because she refused to be “transformed” and that she “chose Falun Gong over her family.” Her son and daughter-in-law believed the officers and stopped visiting her.

Because Ms. Xia refused to be “transformed,” the labor camp extended her term by 17 days. She was released on October 11, 2012.

In August 2015, Ms. Xia was reported to the police for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was detained for 15 days.

Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

Ms. Xia was arrested on April 3, 2018, for hanging Falun Gong banners on the streets. The police interrogated her for over 30 hours in the basement of the police station. Dressed only in a short-sleeved shirt, Ms. Xia froze at night when the temperature dropped and she kept coughing. She was transferred to Nanchang No. 1 Detention Center on April 5, 2018.

In August 2019, Ms. Xia was put on trial and sentenced to two years in prison in October. She appealed the verdict but learned on January 9, 2020, that the Nanchong City Intermediate Court had upheld the ruling.

Due to the tremendous pressure, poor living conditions in the detention center, and worries about her family, Ms. Xia developed severe insomnia. Her memory also started to fail. By the time Ms. Xia was released on April 3, 2020, her family saw that the once beautiful and cheerful Ms. Xia now looked lifeless and old with a head full of gray hair.

Ms. Xia Mingjin before being persecuted

Ms. Xia Mingjin during her imprisonment

After she was released, the police continued to harass her. They ordered her to report to them every month and write thoughts reports. They also took her fingerprints and recorded some of her personal information, including her shoe size.

When Ms. Xia refused to submit to their demands, they called her husband in attempts to pressure him.

Ms. Xia was arrested at home on June 15, 2021. The arresting officers from the Daishan Police Station raided her home and took her to a brainwashing center in the Qingshanhu District. She was released ten days later.

Related report:

Jiangxi Woman Still Harassed After Serving Two Years for Her Faith