Chongqing Woman Given Third Prison Term for Speaking up for Her Faith

(Minghui.org) A 67-year-old Chongqing resident was sentenced to a 4.5-year prison term on March 30, 2023, for practicing Falun Gong. This is the third time that Ms. Yu Hong has been sentenced since the Chinese communist regime began the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.

Ms. Yu was arrested at home on October 25, 2020, by the police from both Chongqing and Shangshui County, Henan Province. The police spent four hours ransacking her home and confiscated her computer and a flash drive.

Ms. Yu’s arrest came months after the Internet police in Shangshui County arrested another Chongqing practitioner, Ms. Yu Xiurong (no relation to Ms. Yu Hong). The police in Shangshui accused Ms. Yu Xiurong of publishing information about Falun Gong on Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging website. They traveled over 700 miles to arrest her on December 31, 2019.

Following Ms. Yu Xiurong’s arrest, three more practitioners in Chongqing, Ms. Han Weifang, Ms. Wang Daiqing, and Ms. Yuan Rong, were also arrested by the police from Henan in July and October 2020. The Chuanhui District Court in Zhoukou City, Henan Province sentenced the three practitioners to prison: Ms. Han and Ms. Yuan each received five years, and Ms. Wang three years.

Suspecting Ms. Yu Hong of submitting information about the arrests of four other practitioners to the Minghui.org website, the police arrested her and held her at the Chongqing No.1 Detention Center.

Ms. Yu Hong’s incapacitated mother, in her 90s, was in a confused state, and incontinent. Her daughter was her sole caregiver. Following Ms. Yu’s arrest, her mother was taken to a senior living center and died there four months later on February 11, 2021.

When Ms. Yu appeared in Jiulongpo District Court on February 9, 2023, her son and other family members went to the court to attend the hearing, but the bailiff lied by saying that her hearing wasn’t on that day to drive them away. The family was shocked to find out that the hearing did take place that day and they were even more devastated to hear about Ms. Yu’s sentencing on March 30.

Past Persecution

Prior to Ms. Yu’s latest ordeal, she was sentenced twice for practicing Falun Gong. She was sentenced to four years in Chongqing Women’s Prison in 2002. After her term ended in March 2006, the authorities held her at the Nanshan Brainwashing Center for another ten days before releasing her.

Because she wrote to Chongqing mayor Wang Hongju and urged his administration to approve her retirement application, Ms. Yu was arrested again on September 27, 2006. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her computer. She was later sentenced to five years.

Ms. Yu was forced to work for long hours at the Chongqing Women’s Prison, often late into the evenings, without pay. After she returned to the cell, she was forced to stand for a few hours before being allowed to sleep. The standing torture happened every day and lasted a few months, which caused her legs and feet to become extremely swollen, such that she could no longer fit into her shoes.

Warden Li Xiaojuan once drew a small circle on the ground and forced Ms. Yu to stand inside it without moving. Two inmates monitored her around the clock. Ms. Yu became exhausted later on and could no longer stand, so she sat down. The inmates then burned her ankle with cigarettes and stomped on her legs. After a year of torture, she was emaciated and very weak.

As she could no longer stand, the guards ordered her to sit on a small stool for hours without moving after every day’s forced labor. While the torture was harmless at first glance, after an extended period of sitting, one would have widespread pain, and one’s buttocks would fester. The inmates who monitored her later received term reductions for their active participation in the persecution.

After Ms. Yu was released, the residential committee staff members continued to monitor her daily activities. Before her latest arrest, she was seized by the police on September 22, 2017, and held in custody until November 1 of that year.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Meng Weihong (孟卫红), president of Jiulongpo District Procuratorate: [phone]Tang Jiahuan (唐家欢), prosecutor of Jiulongpo District Procuratorate: [phone]Wang Ziwei (王子伟), president of Jiulongpo District Court: [phone]Chu Haotian (楚浩天), presiding judge of Jiulongpo District Court

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Arrested By Out-of-Province Police, Chongqing Woman Faces Trial for Her Faith