Partially Paralyzed Due to Abuse While in Custody, Shaanxi Woman Gets Three Years for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old resident of Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province, was sentenced to three years and fined 2,000 yuan on June 5, 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.

Ms. Qiang Xiaoxia was threatened with an increased fine if she filed an appeal. She was out on bail after one side of her body became paralyzed (hemiplegia) while she was tortured in custody. It’s not clear if she will be returned to prison.

Ms. Qiang’s prison sentence stemmed from her arrest on March 27, 2023. That morning, she went to the Shuangzhao Town Police Station and handed the police chief a letter urging him and his subordinates to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Four officers, led by Wang Hui ([phone]), raided her home that afternoon without showing their IDs or a search warrant. They confiscated a portrait of the founder of Falun Gong and some informational materials.

The arrest was not triggered by the letter, the police said. Instead, they suspected Ms. Qiang of putting up Falun Gong materials in Shuangzhao Town. They took her to the Caihong Police Department and kept her for ten days of administrative detention.

Ms. Qiang was put on criminal detention and transferred to the Qindu District Detention Center on April 7, 2023. Due to abuse in detention, her left side became paralyzed and she could no longer take care of herself. The police took her to the 215 Police Hospital and ordered her husband to go there and care for her.

Ms. Qiang’s husband refused and condemned the police for causing his wife’s paralysis and attempting to shirk their responsibility. Not long after, his mother, whom Ms. Qiang had been taking care of before her arrest, passed away. While still mourning her death, he was forced to pick up his wife from the hospital on August 18, 2023. The police refused to continue to pay for Ms. Qiang’s medical treatment.

Prosecutor Huang Yuan of the Qindu District Procuratorate later indicted Ms. Qiang. The Qindu District Court held a hearing on January 30, 2024. Judge Chang Baomin ([phone]) sentenced Ms. Qiang to three years and fined her 2,000 yuan on June 5. He threatened her and told her not to file an appeal or he’d increase her fine.

Past Persecution

Ms. Qiang took up Falun Gong in 1998 but quit the practice after the persecution began the next year. She developed a severe health condition in August 2000 but was unable to afford surgery. She then resumed practicing Falun Gong and soon made a full recovery.

A native of Fufeng County in Shaanxi Province, Ms. Qiang moved in with her parents-in-law in Xianyang City in 2016 to take care of the elderly couple. In her spare time, she got together with other local practitioners to study the Falun Gong teachings and raise awareness of the persecution.

Ms. Qiang and ten other practitioners were having a gathering at a private residence on March 24, 2021, when more than ten officers from the Caihong Police Department suddenly broke in. The police deemed Ms. Qiang a key target as she was found to have a large amount of Falun Gong informational materials in her bag. Her family blamed her for practicing Falun Gong and said that if her parents-in-law, both 91 at the time, become too worried about her and pass away, it would be her fault. The police also threatened to give her heavy punishment if she refused to renounce Falun Gong.

Under pressure from both the police and her family, Ms. Qiang wrote a statement to renounce Falun Gong and provided information about other practitioners who supplied her with the informational materials. She was given 15 days of administrative detention and allowed to go home right afterward. The police did not require her to serve the detention time because of a local outbreak of COVID-19.

Ms. Qiang later wrote a solemn statement to nullify all the written and verbal statements she made against her will while in custody. She continued telling people about the persecution. She was arrested again around October 2022 after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. Officers from the Shuangzhao Town Police Station kept her for an unknown amount of time.