(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old resident of Changchun City, Jilin Province was sentenced to three years in prison for urging a government official to stop following the Chinese Communist Party to persecute law-abiding Falun Gong practitioners like her.
Ms. Cui Yanling was arrested at home on the morning of September 9, 2021, by officers from the Hongqi Street Police Station. They targeted her per the order of an official at the Jilin Province Public Security Bureau. The official had received a letter urging him to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. After poring over surveillance videos, the police concluded that it was Ms. Cui who had mailed out the letter and then tracked her down to her home.
Ms. Wang Ying, another Falun Gong practitioner who happened to be visiting Ms. Cui when the police came, was also arrested.
The Chaoyang District Court sentenced Ms. Cui to three years and Ms. Wang to two years and eight months on June 13, 2022. Both women were admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on July 14, 2023.
This is not the first time that Ms. Cui has been targeted for upholding her faith. A native of Helong City, Jilin Province, she was arrested multiple times by local police and forced to live away from home around 2006. She eventually settled in Changchun.
Past Persecution
Ms. Cui worked as an accountant at the Helong City Asbestos Cement Products Factory in Jilin Province. She recovered from severe myocarditis and cervical spondylosis (wear and tear affecting the spinal disks in the neck) not long after she took up Falun Gong in May 1998. As a result, she never wavered in her faith after the communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong a year later.
Ms. Cui went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in March 2003 but was arrested outside the State Council’s Appeals Office by officers Wang Chunli and Zhao Zhikui from her local Bajiazi Police Department, who had followed her all the way to Beijing. They escorted her back and held her at the Helong City Detention Center for 15 days. Her family was forced to pay 5,000 yuan before she was released.
In 2001, officers Wang Jiahui and Duan Aijun of the Bajiazi Police Department broke into the Helong City Asbestos Cement Products Factory and arrested Ms. Cui. Deputy chief Jin Shengguan then led officers Duan and Liu Xueyan to raid her home. She was detained for 15 days.
A team of agents from the Helong City Domestic Security Office broke into Ms. Cui’s home on May 11, 2006. She happened to be out of town at the time. They confiscated her computer, which was later returned at her family’s insistence.
Weeks later, two officers went to Yanbian Second High School and seized her then 16-year-old daughter from a classroom. They intimidated the teen into helping them locate her mother. After the incident, Ms. Cui decided to live away from home to avoid being arrested.
Officer Wang Jiahui of the Bajiazi Police Department and a local neighborhood committee worker twice attempted to arrest Ms. Cui in 2007 but were unsuccessful. Their tactics included having the worker knock on the door, claiming to conduct a census, while Wang led his officers to stake out at Ms. Cui’s home and block the roads leading to it.
In July 2010, the Bajiazi Police Department dispatched agents to stake out at Ms. Cui’s relative’s home in Yanji City, Jilin Province, in an attempt to catch her.
The police formally put Ms. Cui on their wanted list in early 2011 and tracked her down to her rental home in Changchun City. They broke into the residence on November 12 that year and arrested her. She was taken back to be held at the Helong City Detention Center.
Ms. Cui went on a hunger strike and was taken to the Helong City Chinese Medicine Hospital on November 16, 2011, for force-feeding. In the process, the doctors broke her left front teeth and loosened her right front teeth. She was released two days later.
The Qinghe Street Police Station in Changchun City arrested Ms. Cui on June 4, 2013, and detained her for ten days.
Related Report:
The Persecution of Practitioner Ms. Cui Yanling of Helong City, Jilin Province
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