Cancer-Stricken Woman Not Given Medical Attention Until after Her Trial, Still in Detention Serving Five-Year Sentence

(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old woman in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province, was sentenced to five years and fined 5,000 yuan in June 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Chen Cuizhu was arrested on September 8, 2022, while studying Falun Gong’s teachings with 14 other practitioners. The police confiscated her cash and bankbook and alleged that she intended to use the money to engage in illegal activities.

Due to the poor living conditions, torture, and mental distress in the Zhanjiang City Detention Center, the once healthy and lively woman suffered from quickly declining health. Her skin began to fester and she felt extremely unwell. Only then did the guards take her to the hospital.

Ms. Chen was diagnosed with breast cancer, which had metastasized. The hospital doctor recommended she be admitted immediately or her life would be in danger. Her family hired a lawyer to seek her release on bail for treatment, but the detention center denied the request, with the excuse that she didn’t renounce her faith.

The Chikan District Court tried Ms. Chen on May 4, 2023, despite her deteriorating condition. Even though she was emaciated, she was handcuffed and shackled. The handcuffs and shackles connected to each other, so she couldn’t straighten her back and had to remain bent over, her head almost touching her feet, throughout the hearing. The judge announced her sentence weeks later.

At her family’s repeated pleading, the detention center finally allowed her to be treated after the trial. Her loved ones were not allowed to see her in the hospital, where the guards patrolled outside her room. She was taken back to the detention center five days after the surgery, even though she still needed inpatient care. Her family is not sure if she’s getting proper care in the detention center.

Taking Up Falun Gong

Ms. Chen used to suffer from chronic headaches and stomachaches. She was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer in 1996 and had surgery to remove the mass in Zhanjiang Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical College. Her family, though, couldn’t afford chemotherapy after the surgery. She was in despair.

Her fate changed in March 1997 when she took up Falun Gong. She recovered from cancer in one month and returned to work. She also became a better person who never hesitated to help those in need. In August 1998, she donated 1,000 yuan when she read news about the big flood in Hunan Province.

Following her latest arrest on September 8, 2022, Ms. Chen told the police how Falun Gong had cured her advanced colon cancer and was nothing like what was depicted in the communist regime’s slanderous propaganda. The police actually went to the hospital where she’d been treated and verified her medical history. However, they still took her to the Zhanjiang City Detention Center and submitted her case to the Chikan District Procuratorate, which resulted in her eventual prison sentence.

Past Persecution

Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Chen was previously arrested multiple times for her faith in Falun Gong. She was tortured while serving a four-year prison sentence following her arrest in January 2002.

She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in December 1999 and was arrested. Her family was forced to pay 6,000 yuan to cover the plane tickets for the police to fly from Zhanjiang to Beijing to bring her back. She was detained in the Zhanjiang City Second Detention Center, where she was shackled to the ground so that she could not move.

In early October 2000, Ms. Chen, Ms. Zhou Ruoyue, and Mr. Sun Jiancan were arrested by agents from the Xincheng Police Station in Leizhou City, Guangdong Province. Ms. Chen and Mr. Sun were taken to the Leizhou No. 1 Detention Center and forced to work for long hours without pay. Mr. Sun was later sentenced to two years in prison. Ms. Zhou was detained in the Xuwen Detention Center, where the guards shaved her head to humiliate her.

Ms. Chen and five other practitioners were arrested in Hepu County, Guangxi Province, on January 18, 2002. The arresting officers were from the Hepu County Police Department. The other five practitioners included elderly practitioner Ms. Lao (alias) from Hepu County, Ms. Sun Zengmei and Mr. Wang Liwei (both also residents of Zhanjiang City), and two young practitioners from Sichuan Province (Mr. Zai and Ms. Shao, both aliases).

While in police custody, Ms. Chen and the other practitioners were tortured. The police twisted one of Ms. Chen’s hands behind her back to meet the other hand pulled over her shoulder. They then cuffed her hands tightly and forced her to kneel on the ground. One officer yanked the cuffs hard, causing her excruciating pain. After kneeling for a long time, she had a nose bleed.

The Hepu County Court sentenced all six practitioners to prison on April 24, 2003. Mr. Zai was given 8 years; Ms. Shao, 6 years; Ms. Chen, 4 years; Ms. Sun and Mr. Wang, both 3 years; and Ms. Lao 1 year.

The six practitioners were later transferred to the Hepu County Detention Center to serve time. Ms. Shao was restrained to a bed for so long that she later become incapacitated and could only manage to crawl.

The detention center also took the practitioners to the police department’s torture chamber from time to time, which had all kinds of torture devices to inflict the most harm. When the victims passed out from torture, the guards even kicked them and said, “Let’s see if you are playing dead or indeed dead!”

Ms. Chen went on a hunger strike at the detention center in May 2004. One day a guard knocked her down and ordered more than ten inmates to force-feed her. The inmates pressed her head, hands, and feet tightly. One person pinched her nose and two others placed a bamboo tube (about four centimeters in diameter and more than one foot in length) over her mouth horizontally. A fourth person then poured food through the little space between the bamboo tube and her mouth.

Because her nose was pinched tightly and her mouth was covered tightly, she struggled to breathe and saw stars flashing in front of her eyes. She was then locked in a metal cage about 50 centimeters (about 20 inches) in height and width, unable to sit or lie down. The guards also threatened to nail her to a cross if she was still disobedient after being held in the cage.

Related Reports:

Cancer-Stricken Woman Handcuffed and Shackled Throughout Trial for Practicing Her Faith

Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province: 15 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day