57-Year-Old Woman Tried for Distributing Falun Gong Materials

Home > Persecution > Accounts of Persecution

Oct. 31, 2024 | By a Minghui correspondent in Gansu Province, China

(Minghui.org) A 57-year-old native of Qingyang City, Gansu Province, stood trial in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Yang Liping has been living with her son’s family in Xi’an in recent years, to help care for her grandson. She was arrested on June 6, 2024 by officers from the Yanta District Police Station, and her cellphone and Falun Gong informational materials were confiscated. The police revealed that she was reported for distributing Falun Gong materials in her son’s neighborhood on June 3 and 4, and they tracked her down after pouring over surveillance camera footage. She was held at the Yanta District Detention Center.

Prosecutor Wang Nanxin of the Yanta District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Yang on September 5, 2024. When she appeared in the Yanta District Court on October 12, her lawyer entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. The prosecutor recommended a 1.5-year prison sentence.

Ms. Yang has had ongoing spiritual inspiration since her younger years. After her father, Mr. Yang Guoliang, took up Falun Gong in 1997, she witnessed how his health and character both improved. The persecution began two years before she decided to start practicing Falun Gong. Her father was repeatedly harassed, detained, and had his home ransacked. The elderly man was also forced to attend a humiliating public parade and a subsequent criticism session. He was later given 1.5 years of forced labor. He was brutally tortured while serving time at the Xifeng Drug Rehab Center. He wasn’t released until 2003, when he was emaciated and on the verge of death. Yet the police still came back to harass him. He passed away in 2004.

Ms. Yang was perplexed by her father’s persecution death. She couldn’t understand that he had done anything wrong by practicing Falun Gong and trying to be a good person. To have a better understanding about Falun Gong, she spent several days reading the Falun Gong books left by her father. She identified with everything discussed in the books and experienced a holistic change in her outlook on life.

Ms. Yang subsequently became very serious in practicing Falun Gong. She disciplined herself by its teachings, changed her hot temper, and became a more easygoing person. Her heart condition, severe anemia, and stomach condition all disappeared before she knew it.

Ms. Yang was arrested on July 9, 2011, while visiting a practitioner who had been arrested earlier. The police promised that practitioner’s family that as long as they cooperated with them, they would release that practitioner soon. In order to get their loved one released, the family reported Ms. Yang to the police. She was taken to the Nanjie Police Station. The police also raided her dry cleaning shops, and her Falun Gong books and informational materials were confiscated. After being interrogated overnight, she was taken to the local detention center the next day and held there for 15 days.