67-Year-Old Disabled Woman Tortured While Serving Five Years for Her Faith

(Minghui.org) A Dunhua City, Jilin Province, resident, was subjected to torture while serving five years at the Jilin Province Women’s Prison for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Tian Yujie, 67 a former small business owner, lost her right hand due to an accident decades ago. She became depressed and lost hope in life. After she took up Falun Gong, she became upbeat again. 

For talking to people about Falun Gong at a community market, Ms. Tian was arrested on May 16, 2023, and detained for 13 days. Only ten days after her release, the police took her back into custody. She was sentenced to five years shortly after and admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison. 

This is the second time that Ms. Tian has served time in the same prison for her faith, following an earlier term in 2016. Knowing that she wouldn’t renounce Falun Gong, the guards directly took her to cell 107 in division eight, a strict management division specifically used to torture Falun Gong practitioners holding fast to their faith, upon her admission this time. 

Jiang Wei and Gao Yang, the directors of division eight, ordered inmates Qi Xin and Dai Yu to torture Ms. Tian. She was forced to sit motionlessly on a small stool with an uneven surface for over ten hours a day. Whenever her posture deviated from their requirements, they would tie her legs to the legs of the stool, which caused her calves to be severely swollen. 

Unable to endure the torture anymore, Ms. Tian refused to sit on the small stool. In retaliation, Jiang and Gao sprayed spicy water onto her face, with the excuse that she disrupted the prison order. The water was so pungent that the inmates in the eleven cells nearby all coughed and the smell didn’t go away until days later. 

Qi and Dai also poured cold water onto Ms. Tian. They didn’t allow her to change but opened the window to let cold wind blow on her. They shouted in excitement upon seeing how miserable she was.

As Ms. Tian refused to give up Falun Gong despite the torture, Qi and Dai beat her even harder and claimed that she had skin disease when her body was covered with bruises from the beating.