Guangdong Woman Detained Incommunicado, Secretly Sentenced for Raising Awareness about the Persecution of Her Faith

(Minghui.org) After two years of incommunicado detention, a Foshan City, Guangdong Province resident was secretly sentenced to 2.5 years in late 2021 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Ms. Tan Meiguang’s family didn’t find out about her sentencing until recently.

Ms. Tan, 53, was reported on February 21, 2021 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The police followed her for a month and arrested her on March 18, 2021, while she was buying fruit using paper currency printed with information about Falun Gong. [Due to strict censorship in China, many Falun Gong practitioners use creative ways to raise awareness about the persecution, including printing information on paper currency.]

After arresting Ms. Tan and raiding her home, the police refused to provide her family with any updates about her case or allow them to visit her. The family recently learned that Ms. Tan’s arrest was approved on April 23, 2021 and the Chancheng District Court sentenced her to 2.5 years with a 3,000-yuan fine on November 12, 2021. It’s still not clear where she is currently incarcerated.

This isn’t the first time that Ms. Tan has been targeted for her faith. She was previously incarcerated four times, including serving a 15-month labor camp term, a 5-year prison term and two brainwashing center detentions.

Ms. Tan was arrested in early 2001. After eight months at the local brainwashing center, she was given 15 months at Sanshui Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She was once deprived of sleep for eight consecutive days and beaten by the inmates. A detainee saw a deep wound between her nose and mouth in late December 2002. 

Ms. Tan was arrested again on November 4, 2005. She was beaten and shocked with electric batons while in custody. As her husband was working in another city, their 12-year-old daughter was left at home by herself.

The police found Falun Gong informational materials at Ms. Tan’s home and accused her of printing the materials, even though she didn’t know how to use a computer. The police also changed Ms. Tan’s education level from a third-grade elementary school education to holding an associate’s degree to justify their charges against her. The Nanhai District Court sentenced Ms. Tan to five years at the Guangdong Province Women’s Prison on August 28, 2006. 

Ms. Tan was arrested another time in early June 2011. After her administrative detention expired, she was transferred to the Sanshui Brainwashing Center as she refused to renounce Falun Gong.