Having Served Three Years Behind Bars, Shaanxi Woman Faces Prison Sentence Again for Her Faith

(Minghui.org) A Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province resident was arrested on July 5, 2021 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Wang Hua is now held at the Sanyao Detention Center. The Lianhu District Court originally scheduled a hearing on March 22, 2022, but postponed it due to a local outbreak of COVID-19 cases. 

The Lianhu District Court has been actively participating in the persecution of Falun Gong for the past two decades. Judge Huo Biao, in charge of Ms. Wang’s case, has sentenced nearly 20 practitioners, with the longest term being nine years. Another judge, Quan Borong, in charge of Ms. Li Xuesong’s case, who was recently indicted, has sentenced another practitioner, Ms. Ma Yunhua, to nine years. 

Ms. Wang, around 49, was a top R&D scientist at a chemical company. She started to practice Falun Gong in June 1997. For upholding her faith since the onset of the persecution, she has been given a labor camp term and a prison term. She was also repeatedly held in brainwashing centers, fired from her job and had her pension suspended. 

Below are details of the persecution that Ms. Wang has experienced.

1999 to 2011: Five Arrests and One Year of Forced Labor

Ms. Wang was first arrested in mid-December 1999 for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in a residential building. She was intially detained for 15 days and had her detention extended for another 10 days because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. 

The company she worked at removed her from the employees’ roster and put her on a one-year observation after she was released. She was ordered to report to the police regularly and write “thought reports.” She was given 132 yuan each month to cover her living costs, which was far from enough.

Ms. Wang was arrested by security personnel of her workplace in August 2001 and taken to a brainwashing center, where she was forced to watch videos demonizing Falun Gong every day and write study reports.

Ms. Wang was reported to the police for talking to a student about Falun Gong and was arrested on March 1, 2008. Her home was ransacked. She was also beaten at the detention center.

A month later, on April 14, Ms. Wang was taken to the Shaanxi Women’s Forced Labor Camp. During her one year of detention at the labor camp, she was forced to do hard labor without pay and was tortured for upholding her faith. 

Only a few months after she was released, on August 18, 2008, Ms. Wang was arrested again after being reported by her supervisor for giving her colleagues DVDs about Falun Gong. She was detained for 15 days and then taken to a brainwashing center. 

Ms. Wang was stopped by the police while riding a bike on the street on April 29, 2011. The police searched her bike and arrested her upon seeing Falun Gong materials in the basket. After 15 days of detention, she was taken to a brainwashing center in the suburb of Xi’an. The guards ordered people to monitor her around the clock and forced her to study propaganda materials slandering Falun Gong every day. She wasn’t released until five months later.

2015 to 2017: Two Years of Prison 

Ms. Wang was arrested one more time on July 7, 2015 while at work and taken to the Lu County Detention Center for interrogation. On her detention notice, her family saw that she was charged with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong. 

Ms. Wang’s family hired a lawyer for her on July 28. When the lawyer applied to have her released on bail in August, he was surprised to find out that she had been secretly transferred from the detention center to the Xi’an City Brainwashing Center. She was held there until year end and then taken to the Lianhu District Detention Center. 

Ms. Wang stood trial at the Lu County Court on May 6, 2016 and was sentenced to two years on June 7. She appealed the verdict and the higher court ordered a retrial of her case, citing insufficient evidence and wrong application of law. 

The lower court held another hearing on November 21, 2016 and the prosecutor presented the same charge against her. He also attempted to force Ms. Wang to plead guilty. 

Ms. Wang’s lawyer pointed out that judge Zhao and prosecutor Duan Wanning ordered the hearing without giving him enough time to prepare and the judge also blocked him from reviewing his client’s case document, a blatant violation of legal procedure.

The judge sentenced Ms. Wang again to two years. She was taken to the Shaanxi Province Women’s Prison in late 2016 and released in July 2017.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Huo Biao (霍彪), judge, Lianhu District Court: [phone], [phone]Quan Borong (权波蓉), judge, Lianhu District Court: [phone], [phone], [phone]Chen Bo (陈博), prosecutor, Lianhu District Procuratorate: [phone]