Crimes of Sun Licheng in Persecuting Falun Gong

Title or Position

March 2013 – January 2015: member of the Party Group of the Guizhou Provincial Government, assistant to the governor, director of the Provincial Public Security Department, deputy secretary of the Provincial Party Committee’s Political and Legal Affairs Commission, first secretary of the Political Commissar of the Guizhou Provincial Armed Police

January 2015 – May 2016: vice governor of Guizhou Province, director and Party secretary of the Provincial Public Security Department, deputy secretary of the Provincial Political and Legal Affairs Commission, first secretary of the Political Commissar of the Guizhou Provincial Armed Police

July 2016 – April 2019: vice governor of Shandong Province, director of the Provincial Public Security Department

March 2020 – March 2022: Party secretary of the Jinan Municipal Committee, Shandong Province

March 2022 – Present: vice chairman and deputy Party secretary of the Standing Committee of the Shandong Provincial People’s Congress

 

Major Crimes

From March 2013 to April 2019, Sun Licheng held various leadership roles in Guizhou and Shandong Provinces, including vice governor, director of the Public Security Department, and deputy secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee.

He actively carried out the CCP’s persecution policy of “ruining their reputations, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically.” If a Falun Gong practitioner is killed, it is counted as suicide, the body should be cremated and the death is not investigated. He supervised and directed the suppression of practitioners in both Shandong and Guizhou. The persecution in Shandong was especially severe when he served as the director of the Provincial Public Security Department.

 

Persecution During Sun’s Tenure as Party Secretary of Jinan Municipal Committee, Shandong Province (March 2020 – March 2022)

In 2020, 161 practitioners were persecuted in Jinan. Seven practitioners, including Mr. Chen Jun, Ms. Hua Liqin, Ms. Sun Xiu’e, Ms. Li Guihua, and Mr. Zhang Liang, were arrested on the evening of October 16, 2020. The practitioners’ homes were also ransacked.

In 2021, 172 practitioners were targeted in Jinan, including seven who were sentenced. After spending one year and six months at the Jinan Detention Centre and going through four hearings, Ms. Liu Xiaohui was sentenced to five years and fined 10,000 yuan by the Tianqiao District Court on March 19, 2021.

 

Persecution During Sun’s Tenure as Vice Governor of Shandong Province, Director of the Public Security Department (July 2016 – April 2019)

Shandong Province has been one of the provinces where the persecution of Falun Gong is most severe. Despite changes in leadership at the provincial level, all officials, including Sun, continuously enforced the persecution policies.

During Sun’s tenure as deputy governor of Shandong Province and director of the Provincial Public Security Department, Shandong consistently ranked among the top provinces for cases of harassment, arrests, detention, and sentencing of Falun Gong practitioners. At least 21 practitioners died as a result of the persecution.

These practitioners include Ms. Guo Zhenxiang, Mr. Wu Baoyu, Ms. Shao Ziying, Ms. Yuan Hairong, Mr. Wang Hongzhang, Ms. Liu Xiuzhen, Ms. Peng Guixiang, Ms. Zhao Ruifang, Ms. Wang Huanyun, Ms. Ouyang Haiyan, Ms. Cai Ying, Mr. Li Yuzhang, Ms. Sheng Xilan, Ms. Guo Zhenmei, Ms. Xing Ximei, Ms. Li Suzhen, Ms. Dong Yonghui, Ms. Liu Shuxiang, Ms. Fan Xiuzhen, Ms. Guo Ailian, Mr. Wang Yijun, and others.

Persecution in 2018

In 2018, Shandong Province reported that 1,006 practitioners were arrested, which is 20.7% of the nationwide cases and the highest among all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. Another 406 practitioners were harassed, ranking second in the country.

In April and May 20218, prior to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit to be held in Qingdao on June 10 and 11, 2018, the Qingdao police and 610 Office harassed almost every local practitioner that was on the CCP’s blacklist. At least three practitioners – Ms. Liu Shuxiang, Ms. Sheng Xilan, and Ms. Cai Ying – died as a result of the persecution. Another 227 were arrested and 29 were sentenced.

On November 18, 2018, 36 practitioners in Qingyun County, Dezhou City, were arrested, with the oldest being over 80 years old. All the practitioners’ homes were ransacked. They were detained in the Dezhou Detention Centre and denied family visits. It is reported that the police began monitoring practitioners since July that year and they arrested them with the pretext of “cracking down on organized gangs.”

Ms. Liu Lanchun, of Binzhou City, was arrested on May 23, 2018. When the police raided her home two days later, they also took the nearly 190,000 yuan in cash she had at home.

Mr. Wang Chao, of Muping District, Yantai City, was arrested on November 28, 2018, by police from the Wanggezhuang Township Police Station. The police forcibly broke into his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books, a printer, a computer, and over 100,000 yuan in cash.

Persecution in 2017

In 2017, the CCP launched the nationwide “Crackdown on Organised Gangs” campaign. In Linyi City, the Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the 610 Office planned a special operation called “Operation Storm.” The main purpose of this operation was to arrest Falun Gong practitioners who were under long-term surveillance and destroy their material production sites where they printed informational materials to expose the persecution.

Meanwhile, another harassment campaign also took place. Known as the “Knocking on Doors Campaign,” it was a nationwide effort to arrest and harass Falun Gong practitioners.

As a result of these operations, 3,787 incidents of harassment and 1,118 arrests were reported in Shandong Province in 2017, the highest among all regions in China. In May 2017 alone, 797 practitioners in Shandong were harassed and another 150 were arrested. Ms. Guo Ailian, of the Shengli Oilfield in Dongying City, passed away on May 10, 2017, as a result of repeated harassment. She was 73.

During “Operation Storm,” at least 18 practitioners in Lanshan District, Luozhuang District, and Yinan County, Linyin City, were arrested and had their homes searched. Ms. Xing Ximei and Ms. Li Changfang later died as a result of the persecution. Many more practitioners were sentenced—the longest term was four years with a 90,000-yuan fine.

Persecution in 2016

From July to December 2016, 608 practitioners in Shandong Province were arrested, 196 were harassed, and 73 were sentenced.

 

Select Death Cases

Case 1: Ms. Li Changfang Dies Under Suspicious Circumstances in a Prison Hospital

Ms. Li Changfang from Linyi City, Shandong Province, was arrested on October 23, 2018. She was sentenced to two and a half years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan on March 27, 2019.

Ms. Li began to have a stomachache in June 2019 while she was held in the Linyi City Detention Centre. The pain later spread to her back and legs. Shortly after she was hospitalised on July 6, doctors operated on her without her family’s consent. She remained in a coma after the surgery and her eyes were taped shut the entire time. The doctors claimed that there were complications with her liver and kidneys and they put her on dialysis. She died on July 12 after the police removed the life support machines. Her body was cremated without her family’s consent. Her family suspected that her organs were removed.

Case 2: Ms. Xing Ximei Dies 13 Days after Arrest

Ms. Xing Ximei, of Yi’nan County, Shandong Province, was arrested on November 7, 2017 at a local fair after she was reported for distributing materials which exposed the persecution of Falun Gong. Her family was not informed of her arrest and detention until two days later, when a group of officers, including the police chief, suddenly came to their home and demanded that the family pay 410 yuan for her medical examination and 3,000 yuan for her bail.

When the family refused to pay, the police took them to the Linyi City People’s Hospital, where they saw Ms. Xing undergoing emergency treatment. Half of her body was paralysed, and her abdomen was swollen. She was incoherent and could only say, “They are hurting me,” when her family asked what happened. The police gave the family 3,000 yuan and left quickly.

Ms. Xing passed away on November 20. She was 66. She was diagnosed with a stroke and pneumonia, but she was completely healthy the day she was arrested. Afterwards, the police confiscated her medical records and ordered the local village government to give her family 25,000 yuan in compensation.

Case 3: 82-Year-Old Woman Dies Hours After Being Arrested for Distributing Falun Gong Informational Materials

Ms. Guo Zhenxiang, from Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province, was arrested on January 11, 2019, when she handed out informational materials about Falun Gong at a bus station. A few hours later, the police notified her family that she died while she was detained.

Her son knew that Ms. Guo was very healthy and suspected the death was caused by torture. He hired two lawyers to seek justice for his mother. Local officials threatened to suspend the lawyers’ licenses if they investigated the case. The officials tapped the lawyers’ phones and had agents follow them 24 hours a day. The lawyers that they had no choice but to quit the case.

Case 4: Woman Dies Mysteriously and Police Order Her Body Cremated Without Her Husband’s Consent

Ms. Ouyang Haiyan’s gate was usually closed, so the other villagers were surprised to see it wide open around 10 a.m. on July 19, 2018. They went in and found her lying unconscious in the front yard. Her face was red, and her entire body was covered in bloody blisters. Her legs and back also seemed to have been injured.

The villagers rushed her to a local hospital, which refused to take her, citing her critical condition. They had no choice but to bring her back home. She died later that night.

When they heard she died, the local authorities immediately ordered that her body be cremated the next morning without conducting an autopsy or notifying her immediate family.

Ms. Ouyang’s husband, Mr. Yuan Rongyu, had no idea what was happening at his home, because he was serving one year in prison for practicing Falun Gong.

His late wife, who also practiced Falun Gong, had also been sentenced to prison following the couple’s latest arrest on June 4, 2017. Because Ms. Ouyang was severely injured when the police beat her, she was ordered to serve her 2.5-year term outside of prison, only to die under mysterious circumstances.

Case 5: Mr. Wang Yijun Suddenly Dies in Detention, Family Suspects Foul Play

Mr. Wang Yijun, 65, from Qingzhou City was very healthy and in good spirits when his lawyer visited him at the detention center on August 13, 2016. When he suddenly died six weeks later, his family suspected foul play.

Mr. Wang was arrested on September 6, 2015, after filing a criminal complaint against former CCP leader Jiang Zemin for initiating the persecution of Falun Gong that resulted in his two-time labor camp detention and the confiscation of his personal belongings.

The Qingzhou City Detention Centre called his family on September 25, 2016, and said that Mr. Wang was being resuscitated at Zhongxin Hospital. His family hurried to the hospital but he was not there. A doctor told them that he was not breathing when he was brought to the hospital earlier that day.

Mr. Wang’s family couldn’t believe what they heard, but they weren’t able to contact the detention center officials to verify the news. When they called 110 (emergency services), they learned that Mr. Wang’s body was taken to a local morgue.

Police were guarding the morgue when Mr. Wang’s family and lawyer went there. Only a few family members were allowed inside, but they were not allowed to take pictures of his body.

 

Persecution During Sun’s Tenure as Vice Governor of Guizhou Province, Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and Director of the Public Security Department (March 2013 – May 2016)

Between January to May 2016, at least 38 practitioners in Guizhou Province were arrested and many more were harassed.

Ms. Yang Yuanqin was arrested and and her home was raided on February 27, 2016. She was later released after failing a physical examination. However, the police still came back on a regular basis to harass her and order her to renounce Falun Gong. To avoid the persecution, she was forced to live away from home, only to pass away on December 7, 2016. She was about 40 years old.

In 2015, one persecution death, 11 sentences, and 173 incidents of arrests and harassment were reported in Guizhou. In addition, one practitioner was taken to a psychiatric hospital, and nine practitioners were sent to brainwashing centres.

Mr. Wang Zhixue was arrested at the Guiyang Railway Station on November 20, 2013. He was sentenced to nine years in prison on February 2, 2015, and admitted to the Duyun Prison. His wife, Ms. Xu Yuanxiang, also a Falun Gong practitioner, suddenly passed away at home on the morning of December 9, 2017. The doctor determined the cause of her death to be lacerated lungs. Prior to her death, Ms. Xu was taken from her workplace multiple times by the local police and the neighborhood committee.

In 2014, three persecution deaths, 54 arrests, 136 harassment incidents, 20 sentences, with the longest term being 12 years, were reported in Guizhou.

Because he practiced Falun Gong, Mr. Yang Xiuming was detained twice, given a two-year labor camp term, and fired from his workplace. He was later sentenced to seven years in prison. While serving time at Duyun Prison, he was beaten and verbally abused for extended periods of time and his family was not allowed to visit him. He died on February 6, 2014. He was 58.

Ms. Chen Lizhi was sentenced to three years. She was tortured at Guizhou Women’s Prison until her organs failed and she became extremely emaciated. She died on September 9, 2014. She was 69.