(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Yonghua’s family confirmed on April 20, 2024 that the Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province resident has been sentenced to three years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Wang had already served a 3.5-year prison term for her faith. Her husband, also a Falun Gong practitioner, died in 2017, five years after he completed a four-year term during which he endured relentless torture.
After Ms. Wang’s latest arrest, her daughter, who grew up witnessing her parents being persecuted, faced frequent police harassment. Even though she doesn’t practice Falun Gong, the police listed her as a “sensitive individual” and forbade her from traveling anywhere without their permission.
Ms. Wang, 60, was arrested at her son’s home in Tianjin on July 5, 2023, along with her son’s mother-in-law, Ms. Zhang Maoxia, who also practices Falun Gong. Both women were held at the Binhai New Area Detention Center and denied family visits.
Ms. Wang’s family confirmed in April 2024 that the two women have both been sentenced to three years, but details about their indictment, trial and sentencing were not available at the time of writing.
According to Ms. Wang’s lawyer, she is suffering from a medical condition due to abuse in the detention center and she is unable to walk on her own.
Over ten officers from the Xugezhuang Township Police Station raided the home of Ms. Wang’s daughter Ming (alias) in Tangshan City, Hebei Province on July 14, 2023 and confiscated personal items worth tens of thousands of yuan. Their pretext for the home raid was that they were investigating her mother’s case.
Ming’s husband and mother-in-law, both Falun Gong practitioners, were also arrested and taken to the police station. She and her seven-year-old daughter stayed home and were watched by three officers. Her mother-in-law was released around midnight and her husband was released around 4 p.m. the next day.
Ming worked for a media company. Soon after her mother’s arrest, the police forced her manager to fire her.
Four officers from the Xugezhuang Township Police Station broke into Ming’s home again on November 22, 2023. They took her, her husband, and daughter to the police station. They claimed that the Domestic Security Division had decided to detain the couple for 15 days, but without producing a copy of the detention notice. Due to their daughter’s young age, the police sent Ming to the local lockup while releasing her husband and daughter.
Ming was later released at an unknown date. She booked a trip to Beijing on March 22, 2024. After she purchased the train ticket, the police called her and demanded that she cancel the trip. She complied. When she was trying to buy another ticket on April 22, she was still told that she wasn’t allowed to go to Beijing, due to the upcoming anniversary of the historic April 25 appeal. The police also said that she was on travel restriction and must obtain their approval before traveling to Beijing. Ming managed to get the police to allow her to travel to Beijing but they insisted that she return that same day. On the day of her travel, she was stopped by a security officer at the train station and her bag was searched.
Ming later booked a vacation to South Korea. She spent tens of thousands of yuan on the hotel and flight tickets, but the customs officers stopped her and her daughter from boarding the flight and said the police ordered her to report to them immediately. She went to the police station and the police said they had listed her as a “sensitive individual” and put her under “close surveillance.” She wasn’t allowed to leave Tangshan without their permission, much less leave the country. The police also threatened to force her husband’s employer to fire him.
Since her mother’s arrest in July 2023, Ming’s family, especially her seven-year-old daughter, have been living in fear due to the non-stop police harassment. Yet the police still threatened to return or else have the couple go to the police station.
Ms. Wang was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998 but made a full recovery after she took up Falun Gong later that year. Her heart disease and breast cancer were also cured. Her husband, Mr. Guo Daoyou, was so impressed that he also began practicing Falun Gong.
The couple held firm to their faith after the persecution began and were repeatedly targeted. Ms. Wang decided to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong but was intercepted at the Qinghuangdao City Bus Station. She was taken to a local police station and handcuffed to a basketball stand in the snow. The cold triggered a relapse of her heart disease. The police forced her husband to pay 3,000 yuan before releasing her.
More than two dozen agents broke into the couple’s home on July 18, 2008 and confiscated their valuables, including a desktop computer, printer, laptop computer, rice cooker, and their two children’s school supplies. The police took Mr. Guo, the sole breadwinner, to the Funing District Detention Center. Ms. Wang struggled to make ends meet and also went to various government agencies to seek her husband’s release.
While returning from a community fair on March 19, 2009, Ms. Wang was stopped by officer Chen Yingli of the Funing District Police Department and ordered to go with him to answer some questions. Her then 14-year-old son, who was with her, returned home by himself. After taking Ms. Wang to the Funing District Detention Center, the police went to her daughter’s school and ordered her to sign her mother’s case documents.
The next morning, Chen returned with three more officers to ransack Ms. Wang’s home. They ordered her son to cooperate with them, but the boy refused. Chen called in four more officers. They pushed the boy into a corner and closely watched him while other officers searched the place. Upon finding that a room was locked, Chen ordered the boy to give him the key. But the boy was so terrified that he was unable to talk. Chen called in a locksmith to open the door. Ms. Wang’s Falun Gong books and her children’s laptops were confiscated from that room.
With both Mr. Guo and Ms. Wang in detention, the police often harassed their children at school and ordered them to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong on their parents’ behalf. They threatened the two children that they wouldn’t be allowed to graduate if they didn’t comply. As the couple’s daughter was about to take the college entrance exam and she was a top student in the school, the school leadership treated the police with several meals and urged them not to harass the siblings.
During the summer vacation, the couple’s daughter went to the Funing District Domestic Security Division every day to demand her parents’ release, but to no avail.
Both Mr. Guo and Ms. Wang were later sentenced to 4 and 3.5 years, respectively, and taken to prison in September 2009. Ms. Wang was often hung up by her wrists at the Shijiazhuang Women’s Prison.
While still detained at the Funing District Detention Center, Mr. Guo was often beaten by the inmates and had severe injuries to his legs. The guards at Jidong Prison continued to beat him after he was taken there. When he was released in August 2012, he was suffering from high blood pressure and sequelae from a stroke. He had unsteady steps and slurred speech. He shook uncontrollably when he saw police on the street. He said he was often beaten in prison, sleep deprived and not given enough to eat. He was unable to overcome his fear and his blood pressure remained very high. Succumbing to declining health, Mr. Guo passed away on February 6, 2017.
Previously Jailed for Their Faith, Co-mothers-in-law Detained Again and Denied Family Visits