Hebei Woman Arrested After Seven Years of Displacement, Tried for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 56-year-old Qian’an City, Hebei Province resident stood trial on April 27, 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been targeted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Wen Qingfang was arrested on August 1, 2022 and has been held at the Tangshan City No.1 Detention Center since. She has lost a significant amount of weight after nine months of detention, but she appeared to be in a good mental state when she appeared in court. She refused to be represented by the court-appointed lawyer, but acted as her own lawyer and entered a not guilty plea.

Ms. Wen’s arrest came after seven years of displacement to hide from the police. Following an earlier arrest on December 15, 2015, she was found to have a medical condition and denied admission to the local detention center. She went into hiding after being released, but the three practitioners arrested with her were kept in custody and later sentenced to prison: Ms. Wan Yonghong was sentenced to 4 years and both Ms. Zhou Xiuxia and Ms. Liu Xiaoyuan to 3.5 years.

Following Ms. Wen’s latest arrest, the police quickly worked with prosecutor Wang Xiaojing to restart her prosecution process.

Ms. Wen said during the hearing that no law has criminalized Falun Gong in China. She said that the cult list published by the Ministry of Public Security in 2000 didn’t include Falun Gong, adding that the General Administration of Press and Publication had long lifted the ban on Falun Gong books in 2011.

Prosecutor Wang accused her of violating Article 300 of the Criminal Law, which stipulates that anyone using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Ms. Wen questioned Wang, “Please tell me which law’s enforcement was undermined by me?” Wang remained silent.

Ms. Wen demanded to read in court the book Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, which sheds light on the deceiving and killing history of the regime. The judge rejected her request.

Past Persecution

Ms. Wen used to work for the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau of Qian’an City. She started practicing Falun Gong in April 1998. Soon after, her energy level increased, and her psoriasis and limb weakness disappeared.

Ms. Wen was arrested in July 1999, when she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was taken back to Qian’an and detained for two weeks. Since then, she was put on the police’s blacklist and subjected to repeated arrests and harassment, often before major political meetings.

She was arrested again in July 2000 and had her home ransacked. The deputy police chief, Peng Minghui, beat her during her two-week detention and ordered her to pay 5,000-yuan bail before releasing her.

Ms. Wen was taken to a seven-day brainwashing session on December 21, 2000 by her workplace. As she refused to renounce Falun Gong, she was transferred to the local detention center, where police chief Peng shocked her with electric batons. She still refused to renounce Falun Gong and was taken back to the brainwashing center a month later.

The brainwashing center employees threatened her family that practicing Falun Gong amounted to being a counterrevolutionary. They said she would not only get herself jailed, but the family would also be implicated. Terrified, Ms. Wen’s mother fainted twice and has had a heart condition since then.

Ms. Wen was held in the brainwashing center for one year and two months. After she was released, the police continued to harass her at home and at work, often leaving her daughter trembling in fear.

Ms. Wen was arrested again on February 25, 2006 before an annual conference of the communist regime. She held a hunger strike during the month long detention. The guards and inmates held her down and injected her with toxins. She suffered excruciating pain in her limbs and internal organs. Her right leg became numb and stiff. Only when she began to mumble non-sense and was on the verge of death, did the detention center release her.

Ms. Wen’s family took her to the hospital for an examination. The doctor said her central nervous system was damaged and she would be disabled for the rest of her life. For over six months, Ms. Wen was incapacitated and had to be carried by her family when she went out. She persisted in practicing Falun Gong and miraculously recovered.

Before another political meeting, the police arrested Ms. Wen on September 28, 2007 and raided her home. She again held a hunger strike in the detention center and was force fed. She was released 26 days later.

Torture re-enactment: Force-feeding

Shortly before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Ms. Wen’s workplace ordered her to go back to work, as a way to prevent her from going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was paid 800 yuan each month, which was barely enough to cover her basic living costs. It was not until early 2012, when her employer increased her salary to 1,300 yuan, with another 200 yuan raise in the second half of the year. She didn’t have any benefits either. Compared to her colleagues with similar years of service, she was paid less than half of what they were getting. Living a destitute life with her daughter for many years, most of their meals were just plain noodles.

The police harassed Ms. Wen again between November 2 and 5, 2012, prior to another major political meeting. The police said they were given tasks from above to “visit” Falun Gong practitioners before the meeting took place.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Wang Xiaojing (王小京), prosecutor of Qian’an City ProcuratorateWang Ziliang (王子良), presiding judge of Qian’an City Court: [phone]Xu Fu (徐富), judge of Qian’an City CourtWang Hong (王虹), judge of Qian’an City Court: [phone], [phone]Jia Shenglin (贾胜林), director of Qian’an City Police Department: [phone]

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