(Minghui.org) Ms. Cui Chengxiang was arrested on November 10, 2020, and first appeared in court in June 2022. During her second court appearance on March 17, 2023, the police submitted new “evidence” alleging that she used paper currency with information about Falun Gong printed on it to purchase an 18-yuan tube of toothpaste.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Due to strict information censorship in China, many Falun Gong practitioners use creative ways to raise awareness about the persecution, including printing Falun Gong information on paper currency and/or using such banknotes to make daily purchases.
While it is perfectly legal to use currency bills with Falun Gong messages on them, Ms. Cui never made the alleged 18-yuan purchase with such bills. The police, however, are gearing up to have her sentenced to prison for making such a “purchase.”
Ms. Cui, 60, from Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, took up Falun Gong in May 1996. Shortly after the persecution started, she and her mother went to Beijing in 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. Both of them were arrested and detained for a month. Her husband was forced to divorce her when the authorities threatened to bar their children from attending college or finding a job. Due to the mental stress of the persecution, her mother passed away in 2018.
The residential committee has continued to harass Ms. Cui and her son’s family over the past few years, stressing her family and also disturbing her neighbors.
The residential committee staff members knocked on Ms. Cui’s door on November 22 and 23, 2019, threatening to prohibit her grandchildren and her relatives’ children from attending school.
The residential committee staff members harassed her seven times between August 21 and 31, 2020. Most of the time, four showed up at once, and they came in the evening. They pounded on the door and stayed outside her home for hours. They threatened to freeze the family’s bank accounts and private assets. They also claimed that they had been monitoring Ms. Cui’s cell phone and tracking her location. They said they could summon her son to the police station at any time to get information about her.
Ms. Cui was arrested on September 3, 2020. The 160,000 yuan cash she kept at home was confiscated. She was taken to the Lanzhou City No.1 Detention Center on September 5 and released on bail on September 30 that year.
After her release, Ms. Cui kept asking the police to return her money, but to no avail. The police showed her several photos and asked if the person in the photo was her. When she refused to answer, the police searched her home in an attempt to find clothes that matched the outfit in the photo. They didn’t find anything that matched.
Ms. Cui was deceived into going to the police station to sign her case document on November 10, 2020, only to be arrested and taken to the Lanzhou City No.1 Detention Center. Her family wasn’t informed of her arrest until a day later.
The procuratorate approved her arrest on November 12, 2020, and indicted her on January 12, 2021. The police returned part of the confiscated money to her family but withheld the bills that had information about Falun Gong printed on them.
Judge Liu Baosen of the Chengguan District Court held a secret hearing of Ms. Cui’s case in June 2022. She refused to plead guilty or sign the case document. For the next few months, the prosecutor and the judge met with her several times in the detention center, attempting to pressure her into pleading guilty. She refused to comply.
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