(Minghui.org) Three Linli County, Hunan Province residents were admitted to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison in mid-May 2024 to serve time for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Jin Xinchun, 69, was sentenced to five years. Ms. Qi Kaixiang, 75, received three and a half years. Ms. Hu Yueying, 62, was given two and a half years.
The three practitioners were seized during a group arrest of seven on July 21, 2022, by officers from the Linli County Police Department, the Anfu Town Police Station, and the Wangcheng Village Police Station. An officer revealed that the group arrest was ordered as a part of the stability maintenance effort ahead of the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th National Congress in October 2022.
The other four arrested were Mr. Gao Fei (Ms. Jin’s son), Ms. Zhou Cuilan, Mr. Jiang Zongdian, and Ms. Wu Chuanying. Mr. Gao didn’t practice Falun Gong, but the police also arrested him upon finding that he helped his mother mail a motion to reconsider her previous wrongful sentencing for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Wu, Mr. Jiang and Ms. Qi were released on the same evening. Ms. Zhou was given 12 days of detention. Ms. Jin, Ms. Hu and Mr. Gao were taken to Changde City Detention Center. Due to continued harassment and surveillance, Ms. Wu’s health declined quickly and she passed away on April 19, 2023. Other details about the practitioners’ detention and sentencing aren’t clear.
Past Persecution
Ms. Jin
Ms. Jin was a retiree from a radio and television bureau. She suffered from numerous illnesses when she began practicing Falun Gong in June 1997. Within a few months, the illnesses that had bothered her for decades, including rheumatoid arthritis, gastroenteritis, kidney problems, neurosis, and gynecological hemorrhaging, were completely gone. She was very thankful to Falun Gong for giving her good health and teaching her to be a good person.
In the past 25 years of persecution, Ms. Jin has been arrested seven times and spent 13 years behind bars, including serving three prison terms (April 2000 to May 2003, May 2004 and November 2007, June 2012 to June 2017) and an 18-month forced labor camp term between 2009 and 2010.
She endured relentless torture while in custody. The scars on her wrists from being handcuffed and hung up are still clearly visible after 20 years. The persecution also brought tremendous pressure to her family. Her husband and older son died in June and July of 2016, respectively, while she was still serving her third prison term.
Ms. Qi
Ms. Qi is a retired elementary school teacher in Anfu Town, Linli County. Due to rheumatoid arthritis, her right arm was curved, knees were swollen, and she had difficulty standing. All of these problems disappeared shortly after she began to practice Falun Gong in 1998. Her husband’s gastroenteritis also disappeared and her daughter’s heart disease was relieved.
Because of not renouncing Falun Gong, Ms. Qi was arrested in January 2001 and taken for brainwashing at Changde Drug Rehabilitation Center. Agents of the Linli County 610 Office later transferred her to the county detention center and kept her there for two years and eight months.
Ms. Qi was arrested again on the morning of June 15, 2012 and sentenced to 5 years in September 2013. During her detention, the county social security bureau suspended her pension for over three years. After she was released in June 2017, she only received 962 yuan each month.
Fearing the persecution, her daughter Ms. Qi Hua did not dare to study the Falun Gong teachings or do the exercises for a long time. Her illnesses recurred, and she died on April 27, 2007.
Ms. Hu
Ms. Hu used to suffer from numerous illnesses including throat problems, bone hyperplasia, rheumatism, vertigo, myocardial infarction, stomach disease, colitis, and gynecological diseases. After beginning to practice Falun Gong in August 1998, she quickly recovered. Following Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, Ms. Hu took good care of her mother-in-law when she was hospitalized. The mother-in-law said that she would have died a long time ago without Ms. Hu.
Ms. Hu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested on April 14, 2000. She was detained at a paper mill in Linli Count for seven days, including one day in solitary confinement. Her husband was extorted over 3,000 yuan before she was released.
Agents from Linli County 610 Office and the local police broke into Ms. Hu’s home again in September 2000 and arrested her. They kept her at the county detention center for 15 days and extorted her for 300 yuan. She was arrested another time in April 2001 and detained for over three months.
Her next arrest was in April 2011 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. Police officer Yang Feng twisted her arms during her arrest. Her arms were bruised and the pain didn’t go away until a month later. She was released after being detained for seven days.
Ms. Hu was targeted again during a group arrest of more than 20 practitioners on June 15, 2012. The police pounded on her door at 6 a.m. that day, when Ms. Hu was at home with her five-month-old granddaughter. The police took her and her granddaughter to the police station together for interrogation. Later they called her husband to take the child home. Ms. Hu was sent to a detention center in the evening and detained there for five days.
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