(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that a resident of Xianning City, Hubei Province had been sentenced to three years in fall 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zheng Rongzhen, a retired accountant in her 70s, was arrested in October 2021 after she placed a Falun Gong brochure on a car. Unbeknownst to her, the car belonged to Xiao Tianshu, then chief of the Xianning City Police Department. Xiao instructed his subordinates to arrest Ms. Zheng and take her to a local detention center.
Ms. Zheng’s husband later managed to have her released on bail. The Xian’an District Court sentenced her to three years in the fall of 2023. The details of her indictment, trial, and sentencing remain to be investigated. She was taken back into custody after her wrongful conviction and admitted to the Hubei Province Women’s Prison located in the capital city of Wuhan.
This is not the first time that Ms. Zheng has been targeted for her faith. In July 2001, she was arrested while trying to deliver groceries to another local Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Wang Shuqian (who later died in 2009 as a result of the persecution). The police had locked Ms. Wang’s home from the outside in an attempt to make her renounce Falun Gong. When Ms. Zheng went to visit her, Meng Shaohe, the security guard of the apartment complex, reported her to the police. Officer Qian Jianxin soon arrived to arrest Ms. Zheng. She was held at the Shuangheqiao Lockup for ten days.
Another practitioner detained in the same lockup asked Ms. Zheng to pass a letter to the mayor of Xianning City, urging him to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Someone reported Ms. Zheng for helping that practitioner. Then deputy chief Liu Heping of the Chalukou Police Station arrested Ms. Zheng the very next day after her release. She was held at the same lockup for an unknown amount of time. Her family was extorted out of 300 yuan.
Two officers from the Chalukou Police Station, including Chen Dijian, along with two women from the local street committee, showed up at Ms. Zheng’s door one morning in May 2017. They took pictures of her home and ripped off the decorative couplets on her door. She happened to be returning from grocery shopping and witnessed the police actions.
Chen flashed his police ID and forced Ms. Zheng to open the door. He and a few others confiscated several Falun Gong books. They threatened to call in more officers. Ms. Zheng and her family urged the police to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, and they eventually left without arresting her.
During the “Zero-out” campaign in 2020 aimed to make all Falun Gong practitioners on the government’s blacklist renounce their faith, Ms. Zheng was harassed on the phone by the authorities.
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