82-Year-Old Beijing Woman Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) An 82-year-old Beijing woman was recently sentenced to prison for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. 

Judge Xu Xiu ([phone], [phone], [phone]) of the Xicheng District Court ordered that Ms. Zheng Jinzhi be admitted to the Beijing Women’s Prison despite the fact that Ms. Zheng has difficulty taking care of herself. 

It is unclear when Ms. Zheng was arrested, indicted, tried, or sentenced. Her exact prison term also remains to be investigated.

Illness Free After Practicing Falun Gong

Ms. Zheng developed low blood pressure in her younger years after her employer forced her to donate blood despite her poor health. She once fainted and suffered a concussion. Since then, she was tormented by chronic migraines and later further developed periarthritis (calcium crystals build up) of the shoulder, colitis, adnexitis (inflammation of the fallopian tubes and ovaries), tachycardia (fast heart rate), periodontitis, and lower back pain. Sometimes she couldn’t even turn her body due to the pain. 

Her illnesses, however, were all gone after she took up Falun Gong in 1994. She also learned to be a more considerate person and chose not to seek compensation from a driver who knocked her down, because she understood that it was an accident after all. 

Repeatedly Targeted for Her Faith

Ms. Zheng held firm to her faith after the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999. She wrote a letter to the People’s Congress using her real name in March 2000, urging the legislative body in China to stop persecuting Falun Gong and to allow the publication of Falun Gong books. About two months later, around five officers from the local Fuwai Police Station showed up at her door and attempted to arrest her. She refused to go with them and they left after more than a one-hour standoff.

During the 16th National Congress in November 2002, about seven officers from the Fuwai Police Station, the Xicheng District Police Department, and the Fengtai District Police Department raided Ms. Zheng’s home and confiscated her Falun Gong books and other valuables. They took her to the police station and drove her to the Xicheng District Detention Center that night. 

The detention center initially declined to admit her due to her high blood pressure but relented after the police insisted on keeping her there until the conclusion of the 16th National Congress. 

The guards forced Ms. Zheng to take hypertension drugs every day and gave her a two-year forced labor notice after the National Congress concluded on November 14, 2002. The notice, however, listed two different names. At the top was the name Liu and at the bottom was Ms. Zheng’s full name.

The police handcuffed and shackled Ms. Zheng and took her for a physical examination. She was found to be unfit for detention and the police had her do another checkup, again with her hands and feet restrained. The local labor camp refused to admit her after both examinations showed her to be in poor health. Her family used their connections and got her released on bail on March 19, 2003. She got word three months later that the police would attempt to take her back into custody. She then lived away from home for the next several years.

Ms. Zheng returned home in 2006 and continued to raise awareness of the persecution of Falun Gong. She was arrested not long afterwards, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. The police took her to the Xuanwu District Detention Center but she was released under house arrest the next day after being found to have high blood pressure. She was arrested again in November 2006 and taken to the Baiguang Road Police Station. The Xuanwu District Detention Center declined to admit her due to her high blood pressure. She was held at the police station overnight and driven home the next day.

The police attempted to arrest Ms. Zheng again in March 2008, prior to the Summer Olympics. She escaped to Inner Mongolia and was put on the wanted list. The police raided her childhood home and her second daughter’s home.

Ms. Zheng later returned to Beijing but did not go back to her own home. She rented a place and was arrested there in November 2011. The two arresting officers from the Fuwai Police Station again attempted to keep her at a local detention center but she was denied admission. They then took her to a police hospital, where the medical workers drew a blood sample against her will. They used so much force that she was unable to walk. The nurses then wheeled her around to receive injections. She was unable to eat two days later and was given IV drips. On the eighth day, she was admitted to the intensive care unit of the police hospital. She fainted twice and did not know what happened. A fellow patient told her that the attending physician watched her for a whole day until she came to.

Ms. Zheng was released 15 days later. A physician and two people helped her walk out of the hospital to meet her waiting family. After she returned home, the police still harassed her from time to time, including one episode that took place in August 2012. Her husband lived in fear and suffered declining health. Twice he was rushed to the hospital for emergency care. He is now blind and suffers from neuropathy in his limbs. He cannot take care of himself.