(Minghui.org) A 78-year-old Chongqing man is scheduled to stand trial on July 3, 2026, because he practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Li Chunyuan went to the Changshou District Chinese Medicine Hospital on July 21, 2025, to visit stroke patient Ms. Chen Lihua. Shortly after he and his friend Mr. Yang Dingchan arrived at the hospital, officers from the Taohua Police Station came and arrested them.
Mr. Yang protested and said, “I haven’t even said a word yet. Why are you arresting me?” An officer said everyone present was a suspect.
Ms. Chen’s husband rushed to the police station to seek the release of his wife’s two visitors. The police ignored him and reported the case to the Changshou District Domestic Security Office. Mr. Li and Mr. Yang were taken to the latter agency for interrogation before being sent to a local detention center the next day.
When Mr. Li did the Falun Gong exercises in custody, the guards threatened to turn off the air conditioning and the fan the next day.
To frame Mr. Li, the police pressured Ms. Chen’s son, Mr. Chen Pengfei, to fabricate evidence against him. Unemployed at the time, Mr. Chen was misled to believe that he’d be given a job if he complied with the police. He then claimed that Mr. Li urged his mother to stop receiving medical care and said Falun Gong would heal her.
Mr. Li never said those words to Ms. Chen. The police arranged for Mr. Chen to work at a company, but he was terminated the second day on the grounds that he had “poor health.” Only then did he realize that the police had deceived him into incriminating Mr. Li.
Prosecutor Zhang Shiyang from the Liangjiang New Area Procuratorate issued a formal arrest warrant for Mr. Li on August 21, 2025. Zhang interrogated Mr. Li at the detention center in November 2025. When Mr. Li mentioned how the police fabricated evidence to use against him, Zhang flew into a rage and hurled foul language at him for a long time.
Mr. Li remained calm and reminded Zhang that he was a prosecutor for the people and should follow the rules to ensure defendants’ right to a fair trial. Zhang yelled, “You are not the people! You don’t deserve to be part of the people!”
Mr. Li’s family filed a complaint against Zhang, and the discipline department claimed that the interrogation video had been erased so there was no way they could verify Mr. Li’s account.
Zhang indicted Mr. Li in mid-November 2025. The Liangjiang New Area Court held a pre-trial hearing on January 29, 2026. Mr. Li’s lawyer pointed out the police’s fabrication of prosecution evidence.
The court returned the case to the procuratorate for further investigation. A second pretrial hearing was held on an unknown date. The Fuling District Police Department was then tasked with verifying the prosecution evidence.
It is unclear what was the verification result, but the court scheduled a hearing for July 3, 2026, despite objections from Mr. Li and his lawyer. His case status remains unknown.
Past Persecution
Mr. Li was sickly since he was young. He didn’t start talking until he was four and suffered from chronic rectal bleeding, bloated abdomen, dizziness, and headaches. Nothing helped until he took up Falun Gong in 1996. His health improved significantly. He also became a more considerate physician. He ran his own clinic at the time. He never turned away patients who could not pay [in China, patients must pay first before receiving medical care, even when they need emergency treatment].
After the persecution began in 1999, Mr. Li held firm to his faith and was repeatedly arrested. While held at a labor camp, he was brutally tortured and almost died. He was also twice held at a brainwashing center and wasn’t released until he was on the verge of death. The local government arranged someone to live in his home 24/7 to monitor him for a period of time.
The local health bureau revoked Mr. Li’s medical license in 2000.
Related Reports:
Reported in 2025: 4,803 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested or Harassed for Their Faith
Accounts of Persecution by the Changshou District 610 Office in Chongqing City
Copyright © 1999-2026 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
