96 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith Reported in May 2021

While attending an event in the UK in April 2021 calling for an end to the persecution, Ms. Yu said, “I don’t know when my mother will be released. I came here today to protest the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) because my mother did not commit a crime in practicing Falun Dafa. My parents are now in their 60s. They were imprisoned for over a decade. Their lives are extremely difficult.”

“I am very worried. I hope they can release my mother immediately and give her back her freedom. Stop harassing her. It is not wrong to believe in Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” she said.

72-year-old Mother Sentenced to Three Years Following Arrest for Seeking Daughter’s Release

A 72-year-old mother was sentenced to three years in prison in early May 2021, after she was arrested for seeking the release of her daughter, who had been detained for their shared faith in Falun Gong.

Ms. Chen Yan’s daughter, Ms. Cao Yueling, was arrested on August 24, 2020, before boarding a flight to Shanghai to see her twin sons, who had been staying with their father in Shanghai. She hadn’t seen them for five years.

Fifteen officers took Ms. Cao back to her parents’ home in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, where she has been staying, and ransacked the place. The police also attempted to arrest Ms. Chen, but were stopped by her 78-year-old husband.

For the next few weeks, Ms. Chen went to the Leifeng Police Station several times to demand Ms. Cao’s release, but to no avail.

Ms. Chen went to the police station to demand Ms. Cao’s release again on September 21. After the security guard told her that the police chief wasn’t there, Ms. Chen went to the Domestic Security Office and met with the director, Tu Gang. Tu asked Ms. Chen to wait for him at the police station. Ms. Chen returned to the police station, only to be arrested by Tu. She was sent to the Xinbin Detention Center at around 4 p.m. on the next day.

Ms. Chen’s family recently confirmed that she has been sentenced to prison. She is appealing the verdict. It’s not clear whether her daughter, Ms. Cao, has been sentenced.

Prior to the mother-daughter duo’s latest ordeal, Ms. Cao was arrested in Shanghai on April 2, 2015 for handing out information about Falun Gong and sentenced to 4.5 years on March 25, 2016. She was released around March 2019 and arrested again 18 months later.

Ms. Chen’s arrest came only four months after she returned home on May 10, 2020 after serving a three-year term, which she was given for talking to people about Falun Gong.

Arrested in a Police Sweep, Sichuan Couple Each Sentenced to Eight Years

A married couple in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, were both sentenced to eight years in prison on April 27, 2021, for their shared faith in Falun Gong.

Mr. Liu Wei and Ms. Ai Chaoyu were arrested in a police sweep of 40 local Falun Gong practitioners on July 10, 2019. The couple’s home was filled with police officers during the home raid. According to a housekeeping staff member from the apartment building, the police extracted a dozen videos from the surveillance camera, probably in search of other practitioners who had visited the couple.

The police kept the couple at the Pi County Detention Centre and approved their arrests on August 17. The prosecutor twice returned their cases for insufficient evidence. To frame the couple, the police attempted to extract confessions from them using violence and threatened them with the safety of their family and children. The couple insisted that they hadn’t done anything wrong in practicing Falun Gong.

The Chenghua District Procuratorate indicted the couple on April 3, 2020. Their lawyer visited them at the detention center on April 18. Due to the pandemic, the detention center only allowed the lawyer to talk to the couple through a video conference, and also limited the meeting to 20 minutes.

The lawyer also went to the Chenghua District Court to review the couple’s case document. The receptionist claimed that the case hadn’t been put on the docket yet and refused to give the lawyer access to the documents.

On March 9, 2021, after another eleven months of detention, the couple was tried through a video conference at the detention centre. The guards didn’t provide chairs or microphones for them. As a result, the couple stood throughout the hours-long hearing and had to shout into the microphone on the wall, in order to talk to the judge.

After a second hearing on March 30, the judge sentenced both of them to eight years on April 27. They have appealed the verdicts.

In addition to the couple, another four practitioners were arrested on the same day and were also given heavy terms. Ms. Mao Kun was given 11.5 years. Mr. Du Rong was sentenced to 9 years with a 10,000 yuan fine. Ms. Zhang Zhenhua was sentenced to 8 years with an 8,000 yuan fine. And Mr. Chen Shigui was given 7.5 years with a 6,000 yuan fine.

While awaiting the result of her appeal case, Ms. Mao was suddenly hospitalized on April 9, 2021, and died two days later. Her family suspected that she might have been tortured in custody.

For upholding her faith in the face of the persecution, Ms. Ai has been subjected to constant harassment and monitoring of her daily life. Unable to bear the pressure, her husband divorced her in February 2002. Ms. Ai married Mr. Liu in 2004. The police continued to harass her and forced her to live away from home to avoid persecution several times.

Guangxi Couple Sentenced to Prison, Husband Suffers Medical Problems

Mr. Xie Jianxin is having gastrointestinal bleeding and swelling on his neck, while being imprisoned for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The situation of his wife, Ms. Zhao Renyuan, who was arrested and sentenced with him, remains unclear, as the prison is blocking any form of contact between her and her family.

The couple, from Guilin City, Guangxi Province, were arrested at home in the middle of the night on February 5, 2020. The police claimed that they were there to take the couple’s temperature. After Mr. Xie refused to open the door, the police broke in and arrested them.

When the couple’s family called the police on February 8 to inquire about their case, a police officer said that the two were arrested for handing out Falun Gong materials, but he refused to provide any other information.

The couple stood trial at the Xiufeng District Court on November 6, 2020. The judge sentenced them to four years with a 5,000-yuan fine each on December 1, 2020.

The Guilin City Intermediate Court accepted their cases on December 16, nine days after they filed the appeal. In early January 2021, Ms. Zhao’s lawyer tried to contact the judge assigned to the appeal cases, but to no avail. A court clerk later told him that the judge has issued the ruling to uphold the couple’s sentences at the end of December 2020, but without informing the lawyer. Now six months have passed, and the couple’s family has yet to receive the verdict from the intermediate court.

Ms. Zhao was transferred to the Guangxi Province Women’s Prison in Nanning on February 9, 2021. When her family called the prison in mid-February, the guards said they wouldn’t allow them to visit her due to the pandemic. They wrote a letter to her, but haven’t heard back. They called the prison again in May and the guards still refused to provide any information about Ms. Zhao.

Mr. Xie was taken to the Liuzhou Prison on April 8, 2021. According to his lawyer, he has had several episodes of gastrointestinal bleeding at the detention centre. In the letter Mr. Xie wrote to his family, he noted that the swelling on his neck was getting worse.

Jilin Lawyer Sentenced to Seven Years, Wife Awaits Verdict

Mr. Du Jingyi, a lawyer in Changchun City, Jilin Province, recently had his appeal against a seven-year prison sentence for his faith in Falun Gong rejected. His wife, who was arrested a year after him, is awaiting a verdict following a court hearing in December 2020.

Mr. Du, in his 60s, was arrested at 6 a.m. on September 9, 2019, when he went out to buy groceries. The officers took his keys and ransacked his home. Although Mr. Du’s wife, Ms. Cui Yuqiu, and their daughter, Ms. Du Xin, were also arrested, they were released at around 11 p.m. that day.

Mr. Du was held at the Yihelu Police Station overnight and transferred to the Changchun City No. 2 Detention Centre the next day. He was once hospitalized after developing scabies due to the unsanitary conditions in his cell.

Two days after Mr. Du’s first hearing by the Chaoyang District Court on July 13, 2020, the police broke into his home and arrested his wife and daughter again. While Ms. Du was released after 13 days of detention, Ms. Cui is still detained at Changchun City No. 4 Detention Centre.

During Mr. Du’s second hearing on September 28, judge Zhang Dan barred his daughter from attending the hearing, with the excuse that she was listed as a prosecution witness against him. When Ms. Du went out to look for a family member to attend the hearing for her, the judge started the proceeding and refused to let Mr. Du’s relative enter the courtroom.

On December 10, 2020, Mr. Du’s family received a notice from the Chaoyang District Court that Ms. Cui was scheduled to appear in court the next day. The judge said the family wasn’t allowed to attend the hearing, because the case was very special.

Mr. Du was sentenced to seven years around early May 2021. His family wasn’t informed of his verdict. He appealed with the Changchun City Intermediate Court, but it ruled to uphold his original verdict.

Prior to Ms. Cui’s latest arrest, the 68-year-old former employee of the library of Jilin University was given one year in April 2002 and one and a half years in November 2003, both at the Heizuizi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. She was often beaten, shocked by electric shocks, deprived of sleep, and forced to do long hours of free labor.

Ms. Cui’s second labor camp term dealt a heavy blow to her mother. The elderly woman in her 90s was depressed and soon passed away. Because of missing her, Ms. Cui’s daughter, Ms. Du’s, academic performance in high school dropped quickly. Once a top student in her class, she wasn’t admitted to a college, which caused her tremendous difficulty in finding a job.

Secretly Sentenced

Shaanxi Man Secretly Sentenced to Four Years

When Mr. Liu Wei’s family went to the detention centre to visit him in late May 2021, they were told that he has been sentenced to four years for practicing Falun Gong. This is the first time that his family has been given an update about his case following his arrest one and a half years ago.

Mr. Liu, a retired employee of the Grain and Oil Machinery Factory in Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, was arrested in nearby Xi’an City in September 2019. While another practitioner, Zhang Jing, who was arrested with him, was released after 30 days of detention in the Yanta District Detention Centre, Mr. Liu remains in custody. The police have kept his family in the dark about his whereabouts.

In early November 2019, Mr. Liu was taken back to his residence in Hanzhong. The police searched his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books and printer. He was then held at the Foping County Detention Centre under the jurisdiction of Hanzhong.

When Mr. Liu’s family went to the Foping County Detention Centre to visit him in May, he had already been transferred to the Hantai Detention Centre while awaiting the result of his appeal. A guard revealed that he might be taken to the Weinan Prison soon to serve time.

This isn’t the first time that Mr. Liu, in his 60s, has been persecuted for practicing Falun Gong. He was previously given two years at the Guozhen Forced Labor Camp following his arrest in September 2009. He was arrested again in January 2013 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong and was sentenced to four years by the Nanzheng County Court. He was constantly tortured and forced to labor for no pay at the Weinan Prison.

Guizhou Woman Secretly Arrested and Sentenced

Since Ms. Zhou Qin was secretly arrested in September 2019, her family hasn’t been allowed to see her once. They were recently notified that the 61-year-old former college English teacher has been imprisoned to serve a six-year term for practicing Falun Gong.

Ms. Zhou, a Guiyang City, Guizhou Province resident living by herself, suddenly lost contact with her family in September 2019. Unable to reach her, her cousin went to her home on September 25, but no one opened the door. None of her neighbors recalled having seen her recently.

Ms. Zhou’s cousin returned a few days later and Ms. Zhou still wasn’t home. She reported Ms. Zhou’s disappearance to the local police station on October 4, only to be told that she had been arrested. When her cousin asked the police why she was arrested and where she was detained, they refused to answer.

For the next few months, Ms. Zhou’s cousin and her friends visited almost every detention centre in Guiyang to look for her, but to no avail. Finally, they found her at the Sanjiang Women’s Detention Centre, a facility in the suburban area of Guiyang.

Ms. Zhou’s family made two cash deposits for her, in December 2019 and January 2020. After the coronavirus pandemic broke out, the detention centre stopped receiving them for the deposits.

In May 2021, Ms. Zhou’s family received her six-year prison sentence dated April 19, 2021. It was reported that she had been taken to the Guizhou Province No. 1 Women’s Prison (also known as the Yangai Prison), but the prison authorities also barred them from visiting her there.

Tianjin Man Secretly Sentenced to 3.5 Years

Mr. Xiao Shuqing, a Tianjin resident in his 70s, was secretly given a 3.5-year prison sentence in April 2021 for his faith in Falun Gong.

Mr. Xiao was arrested in March 2020 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. Although he was released on bail shortly afterward, the police repeatedly took him back to the Ruijing Police Station for interrogation. He was also summoned to the local court and Procuratorate, and taken to hospitals for physicals. The police collected samples of his blood against his will on October 21, 2020, and in March 2021.

The police took Mr. Xiao back to the police station on April 19, 2021. They told him that his case wasn’t closed yet and that he had been scheduled to appear in court. At 9:30 p.m. that day, officer Jin went to Mr. Xiao’s home and informed his family that he had been sentenced to 3.5 years on charges of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organisation,” the standard pretext used to incriminate Falun Gong practitioners.

Officer Jin said Mr. Xiao was being held at the Beichen Detention Centre and his case had been handled by judge Guo Huayang of the Beichen Court. No official verdict or hardcopy of Mr. Xiao’s case document was ever given to his family.

A few days later, his family received his arrest warrant by express mail, but they refused to accept it.

Other Sentencing Cases

Judge Follows the 610 Office Instead of the Law in Sentencing Sichuan Man

When sentencing a Chengdu City, Sichuan Province resident to prison, the presiding judge indicated that they don’t follow the law in prosecuting Falun Gong cases, but only listen to the 610 Office, an extralegal agency created on June 10, 1999, specifically to persecute Falun Gong.

Mr. Yang Huaming, a 53-year-old staff member of the Sichuan Province Maternal and Child Health Hospital, was arrested on October 1, 2019 when he went back to his hometown in Shehong. Both police from Chengdu and Shehong participated in the arrest.

After the police submitted his case to the Wuhou District Procuratorate, the prosecutor returned it twice, citing insufficient evidence. The police threatened Mr. Yang and his family that if he didn’t plead guilty, he would be given a heavy sentence.

The prosecutor indicted Mr. Yang after the police’s third attempt. Mr. Yang appeared in the Wuhou District Court on April 21, 2021. He pleaded not guilty and argued that no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China. He further stated that the Chinese Publication Bureau had lifted the ban on Falun Gong literature in 2011.

Despite the lack of legal basis, the judge still sentenced Mr. Yang to four years with a 10,000-yuan fine on May 12, 2021.

Anhui Woman Sentenced for Sharing Story of Her Recovery after Being Bedridden for 11 Years

After her twin daughters were born when she was 32, Ms. Kang Qihui developed pelvic congestion syndrome and was bedridden for the next 11 years. She visited large hospitals but was always sent home. Ms. Kang also tried Chinese medicine and different qigong schools, but nothing completely cured her. As her daughters grew up, they’d always first go see if she was still alive when they returned home from school.

Ms. Kang of Hefei City, Anhui Province, later received a flyer about Falun Gong, an ancient spiritual discipline. Interested in Falun Gong’s health benefits, Ms. Kang began to read Zhuan Falun, the main text of the practice. She miraculously recovered in two days.

Deeply grateful to Falun Gong for giving her a new life, Ms. Kang was eager to tell more people about its health benefits. In her spare time, she began to go out and talk to people, and distribute informational materials.

On April 23, 2020, Ms. Kang was reported by people who misunderstood Falun Gong. Police officers arrested her, ransacked her home, and confiscated her Falun Gong books, informational materials, computer, printer, and laminator. She was put in criminal detention in Hefei City Women’s Detention Centre after being interrogated at the police station.

The police submitted Ms. Kang’s case to the Shushan District Procuratorate in July 2020, which indicted her and forwarded her case to the Shushan District Court. Both the Shushan District Procuratorate and Shushan District Court were designated as the main agencies to handle Falun Gong cases in the Hefei region two years ago.

During Ms. Kang’s hearing on November 27, 2020, her husband, who hasn’t seen her for seven months, wasn’t allowed to attend, as the judge claimed that he was listed as a witness against Ms. Kang by the police.

Ms. Kang detailed her health recovery from practicing Falun Gong and she pleaded not guilty for talking to people about it. The presiding judge, Wu Xiaoshui, was so surprised to hear her story that she blurted out, “You said Falun Gong cured your disease?”

Ms. Kang’s two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for her and refuted the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organisation,” a standard pretext used by the authorities to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.

The lawyers pointed out that no law has ever criminalised Falun Gong in China or labeled it as a cult. When the lawyers presented a copy of a Chinese Publication Bureau notice issued in 2011, which revoked the ban on Falun Gong books, the prosecutor was shocked. “You downloaded this from the Internet?” he asked.

After the lawyers confirmed that it was an authentic, official notice, the prosecutor became dejected and mumbled that he and the court “were just following orders from above [in carrying out the persecution].”

The judge later sentenced Ms. Kang to 4.5 years with an 8,000-yuan fine. She appealed the verdict, but the higher court ruled to uphold her original sentence on April 19, 2021, without a hearing. She has been taken to the Anhui Province Women’s Prison.

Related reports:

• 90 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith Reported in April 2021
• 100 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison for Their Faith Reported in March 2021
• 120 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith Reported in February 2021
• 186 Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced for Their Faith Reported in January 2021