Crimes of Feng Guang, Director of Division One of the Ranghulu Procuratorate in Heilongjiang Province, in Persecuting Falun Gong

Major Crimes

Since the CCP began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, the procuratorates and courts have helped the regime in sentencing Falun Gong practitioners.

From 2019 to the present, Feng Guang, a prosecutor at the Ranghulu Procuratorate in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, has indicted at least 40 Falun Gong practitioners in Daqing and Harbin, using the trumped-up charge of “using a cult organization to undermine the implementation of the law.” All of the practitioners were later sentenced to prison and 27 are still serving time. Three of these practitioners have died due to abuse in prison.

Below are selected persecution cases that Feng Guang has been directly involved in.

 

Case 1: Mr. Lyu Guanru Died from Abuse in Tailai Prison

Mr. Lyu Guanru, a resident of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on November 9, 2018, in a police sweep of more than 60 Falun Gong practitioners in both Daqing and Harbin City, the capital of Heilongjiang Province. While he was held at the Daqing City Detention Centre, the police interrogated him, forced him to stand for long hours and had him wear shackles. His arrest was approved by the Ranghulu District Procuratorate on December 15, 2018.

When Mr. Lyu went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the guards force-fed him, which caused him to vomit blood and suffer heart failure. On the verge of death, he was resuscitated at the hospital several times.

Mr. Lyu was indicted by the Ranghulu District Procuratorate on March 30, 2019, and he appeared in the Ranghulu District Court on June 6, 2019. His two lawyers entered a not guilty plea for him, and he also testified in his own defense. The judge sentenced Mr. Lyu to seven years with a 40,000-yuan fine on July 1, 2019. He appealed the verdict, but the Daqing City Intermediate Court upheld his sentence without a hearing on July 23.

Mr. Lyu was taken to Hulan Prison straight from the hospital on July 30, 2019. He was later transferred to Tailai Prison in November 2019. Despite his poor health, Tailai Prison continued to torture him and kept him in a small cell for more than a month. He suffered a cerebellar hemorrhage and died in prison on April 4, 2021, at the age of 69.

 

Case 2: 75-Year-Old Retired Teacher Dies in Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison

Ms. Mou Yongxia, a 75-year-old retired teacher, died from ongoing abuse at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison on July 13, 2023. The guards arbitrarily cremated Ms. Mou’s body before notifying her family.

Ms. Mou was arrested in September 2019 and sentenced to a six-year prison term by the Ranghulu District Court in May 2020. Guards at the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison instigated the inmates to beat and verbally abuse her. Years of torture and abuse took a toll on her health and she could barely move.

After Ms. Mou suffered fecal incontinence in August 2022, an inmate beat her and poured cold water on her. She also subsequently suffered a mental disorder, yet the guards and other inmates continued to beat her routinely.

In late December 2022, a prisoner complained that Ms. Mou walked too slowly and roughly pushed her from behind. Ms. Mou fell to the ground resulting in bruises to her face. That night she developed frequent urination, and she had to get up over ten times each subsequent night. The inmates assigned to watch her often verbally abused her and beat her because of this.

Ms. Mou often woke up in the middle of night screaming because of the ongoing abuse. It was so loud that inmates in other cells could hear her. She was disoriented and could not even recognize other Falun Gong practitioners who were staying in the same cell with her.

Her son demanded that the prison authorities release Ms. Mou on medical parole, but his requests were repeatedly denied.

 

Case 3: Former Assistant Bank Director Passes Away During Displacement

Ms. Ding Lihua, a former Assistant Branch Director of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on November 9, 2018, and detained at the Daqing City Detention Centre. Although she was later released on bail due to high blood pressure, the police seized her again and took her back to the detention centre on December 22, 2018. After the detention centre refused to admit her, Ms. Ding was released again.

Ms. Ding was tried on August 22, 2019 by the Ranghulu District Court and sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined 20,000 yuan in late September. Her appeal to the Daqing City Intermediate Court was turned down in October 2019.

To avoid being taken back into custody, Ms. Ding lived away from home. Living in fear and distress, her health deteriorated. She had developed severe stomach pain by May 2021, and couldn’t keep anything down.

Ms. Ding fell into a coma on June 15, 2021 and was taken to the hospital. She was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. She passed away on June 18, 2021. She was 73.

 

Case 4: Targeted in a Mass Arrest, Three Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison

Three Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province residents were sentenced to prison for their faith in Falun Gong. Mr. Du Yecheng, in his 40s and owner of a glass shop, was sentenced to seven years. Mr. Guan Xingtao received eight years, and his wife, Ms. Wu Yanhua, was given seven and a half years. They have all appealed to the Daqing City Intermediate Court.

The three practitioners were targeted during a mass arrest of more than 100 practitioners in Heilongjiang Province on November 9, 2018.

The Ranghulu District Procuratorate approved the three practitioners’ arrests on December 14, 2018. The practitioners appeared in the Ranghulu District Court on August 12, 2019. Ms. Wu and Mr. Guan’s family hired a lawyer to enter a not guilty plea for them. Mr. Du testified in his own defense.

Both the lawyer and Mr. Du argued that no law in China has ever criminalised Falun Gong. They also refuted the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organisation,” a standard pretext used by the Chinese authorities to frame practitioners.

The lawyer questioned prosecutor Feng, “Can you specify which law was undermined by my clients?” Feng didn’t respond.

In the more than 100 pages of case documents, all evidence listed against the practitioners were their Falun Gong books, personal cellphones and computers. “None of these items could indicate that my clients have violated any law,” the lawyer said. He went on to say, “Falun Gong has been introduced to many countries around the world and embraced by the citizens there, and it’s only in China and North Korea that it’s being persecuted.”

Mr. Du also spoke in his own defense. “I just want to be a good person by practicing Falun Gong and living by its principles,” he said. “I haven’t violated any law in upholding my faith.”

The presiding judge, Zhang Xinle, adjourned the hearing without issuing any verdict. He announced the verdicts in November 2019.

 

Case 5: Seven Heilongjiang Residents Sentenced to Up to Almost 11 Years

Seven Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province residents were arrested on April 7 and 8, 2020, for making phone calls to people about how the communist regime covered up the pandemic, as well as how people with the virus have recovered by sincerely reciting the phrases “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” All seven were sentenced to prison.

They appeared in the Ranghulu District Court four times, on December 17 and 29, 2020, and on June 22 and October 21, 2021. During their hearing in October, one of the practitioners, Mr. Li Lizhuang pointed out that the police failed to provide specific information about the phone calls, including the exact time of the calls, the length of each call, what was said during the calls, how many phones were used by each practitioner, their own cellphone numbers, as well as how the phone calls had harmed others.

Mr. Li added that during the pandemic lockdown between January and April 2020, each of the practitioners could only leave home for two hours each day to make phone calls to the public to expose the persecution of Falun Gong. Each phone call was about three minutes, and it was impossible for the seven of them to make 150,000 phone calls during the 100 days of lockdown as alleged by prosecutor Feng, as they’d at most make a total of 28,000 calls based on the math (100 days x 120 minutes each day x 7 practitioners, divided by 3 minutes for each call). As a matter of fact, she said, the phone calls the practitioners made were not even nearly 28,000, much less the alleged 150,000.

When prosecutor Feng read from a notebook that he recommended five years against Mr. Li, judge Xue Qiang cleared his throat and Feng immediately changed the recommended term to ten to eleven years.

During the practitioners’ previous hearing in June, Feng had attempted to trick the practitioners into admitting to having made tens of thousands of phone calls, by promising to reduce their prison sentence by three or five years. He threatened that otherwise, he would ask for seven to eleven years in prison.

Judge Xue announced the verdicts on November 17, 2021. Mr. Li was sentenced to ten years and eight months with an 80,000-yuan fine. Ms. Tang Zhuyin was sentenced to nine years and four months with a 50,000-yuan fine. Ms. Zhao Lihua was sentenced to seven years and five months with a 40,000-yuan fine. Mr. Huo Xiaohui was sentenced to seven years and three months with a 40,000-yuan fine. Ms. Ding Yan was sentenced to four years and two months with a 30,000-yuan fine. Ms. Jiao Qihua was sentenced to four years with a 30,000-yuan fine. Ms. Li Yanqing was sentenced to one year and ten months with a 20,000-yuan fine.

 

Case 6: 71-year-old Woman Sentenced to Eight Years

Ms. Han Lihua, a 71-year-old Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province resident, was arrested on November 22, 2020. She was indicted by the Ranghulu District Procuratorate and tried in the Ranghulu District Court on August 2, 2022. Judge Leng Zhiqiang asked her if she acknowledged the Falun Gong materials confiscated from her as evidence of her guilt. She argued that having the materials didn’t violate any law, that she wasn’t present when the police ransacked her home, and that they never verified with her the confiscated items or provided a confiscation list.

Ms. Han’s lawyer entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf and denied the allegations against her, namely, “undermining law enforcement,” the standard pretext used to criminalise Falun Gong practitioners. He argued that prosecutor Feng failed to prove Ms. Han’s alleged criminal intent or to show how she undermined any law or what damage she caused to any individual or to the country. He urged the judge to acquit her. The judge still sentenced Ms. Han to eight years with a 50,000-yuan fine in early January 2023.