(Minghui.org) A Beijing resident has been held in the Shunyi District Detention Center since her arrest on September 14, 2023. She was arrested because she practices Falun Gong, a traditional mind-body cultivation practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Gao Weiping’s father, in his 80s, witnessed his daughter’s arrest by officers from the Renhe Police Station at his own home. He had been suffering from poor health and Ms. Gao visited him often to take care of him. The elderly man was devastated by his daughter’s arrest and has lost his appetite.
Due to the information censorship in China, details about Ms. Gao’s current situation aren’t fully known.
Ms. Gao Weiping
Past Persecution
Ms. Gao, 58, was an editor in the research department of China News Service, which is affiliated with the Foreign Affairs Office of China’s State Department. She took up Falun Gong in 1994 and her back pain and gynecological disease soon disappeared. She strove to live by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and was known in her workplace for her kindness.
After the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Gao was arrested multiple times. She served two labor camp terms totaling three years, and two prison terms totaling seven years.
While in custody, Ms. Gao was held in isolation, deprived of sleep, subjected to brainwashing and verbal abuse, and forced to work long hours without pay. As she refused to renounce Falun Gong, the labor camp and prison guards used various torture methods on her, including electric shocks, forced-feeding, involuntary drug administration, being forced to repeatedly squat and stand up, and squatting on her tiptoes in the snow while wearing only thin clothes.
Ms. Gao temporarily lost her memory and was in a state of delirium as a result of the torture. She also had blood samples frequently taken, which she suspected was for organ matching in the communist regime’s organ harvesting crimes.
Two Labor Camp Terms
Ms. Gao was summoned to her workplace’s security department in June 2000 and was immediately arrested by three plainclothes officers. She later learned that they were from the Domestic Security Office. The authorities did background checks on her family of three generations and monitored her phone calls. Her family were under tremendous pressure. She was given one year of forced labor in late 2000 and another two-year term in August 2001 for putting up informational materials about Falun Gong in a public area.
In September 2003, one month after her release, Ms. Gao was demoted at work and scheduled to work the night shift in the printing shop. She only received 1,000 yuan as a stipend each month and was deprived of all other benefits. Her workplace and the local 610 Office attempted to take her to a brainwashing session in May 2004. She refused to comply and was forced to go into hiding. Her employer then fired her for not showing up for work.
Twice Sentenced to Prison
Ms. Gao was arrested again at her rental place in Chaoyang District in Beijing in July 2009. She was later sentenced to three years and transferred to the Beijing Women’s Prison in early 2010.
Ms. Gao went missing on February 9, 2017. Suspecting that she was arrested again, her family went to several local detention centers to look for her and eventually found her in the Dongcheng District Detention Center. The Dongcheng District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Gao in early August 2017 and the Dongcheng District Court sentenced her to four years with an 8,000-yuan fine on December 29, 2017. She appealed with the Beijing City Second Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict. Ms. Gao was transferred to the Beijing City Women’s Prison in May 2018.
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