Heilongjiang Woman Sentenced to 7.5 Years for Her Faith
(Minghui.org) A Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province resident was recently sentenced to 7.5 years by the Jidong County Court for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Gu Aimin was arrested on April 22, 2023 by officers from the Xiangyang Police Station. She has appealed the verdict, but details about her sentencing aren’t clear.
Ms. Gu, 53, took up Falun Gong in July 1998. Soon after, her stomach condition, frozen shoulder, arthritis and gynecological diseases all disappeared. She no longer had to be careful about what she ate and her legs wouldn’t feel cold if she didn’t wear heavy slacks.
After the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Gu was arrested many times. She was forced to live away from home three times to hide from the police and she lived in displacement for over ten years.
Below is Ms. Gu’s own account of the severe persecution she has experienced, provided eight years ago.
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Arrest in 2000
I went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong on December 22, 2000. I was arrested by plainclothes officers at Tiananmen Square and taken to the Jiaomen Detention Center in the evening. Because I refused to tell the police my name and address, they beat and verbally abused me. [Note: In order to protect family, friends, and colleagues from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) implication policies, Dafa practitioners often refused to reveal their names when arrested.]
The next day, I was transferred to the Qian’an City Detention Center in nearby Hebei Province. I held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force-fed. On the ninth day, on December 31, a group of officers from the Qian’an City Police Department came and brought me to a room. They also demanded to know my name and address. As I still refused to answer their questions, they beat me, verbally abused me and tied me up. As a result of the torture, my nose bled and a handful of my hair was pulled out. I also suffered urinary incontinence. Shortly after, I was released.
Torture illustration: tying up
Harassment in 2001
Two officers from the Liumaokuang Police Station came to my home in late January 2001 during the Chinese New Year holiday and ordered me to turn in my Falun Gong books. They threatened to detain me if I didn’t renounce Falun Gong. Not wanting to ruin my family’s New Year holiday, I was forced to say “I’m not practicing anymore” against my will, which I truly regretted. The police took my Falun Gong books when they left.
Arrest in 2002
Officers Wang and Liu Zhigang of the Donghaikuang Police Station ransacked my home in March 2002 and confiscated my Falun Gong books. After I was taken to the police station, then police chief Gou Xiuli extorted 500 yuan from me before allowing me to go home.
Arrest in 2003
Song Wenge, the new chief of the Donghaikuang Police Station, and another officer raided my home a year later in April 2003. My Falun Gong books were confiscated again. A day later, they took me to the Jixi City No. 2 Detention Center and confiscated my ID.
On May 1, all Falun Gong practitioners held in the detention center started a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Guard Wang Lijun forced our cellmates to kneel near the wall in order to force us practitioners to give in. While we didn’t want to see other inmates punished for our hunger strike, we also knew that the guards were at fault in making both practitioners and non-practitioners suffer.
When we insisted that we wouldn’t eat, the guards ordered the inmates to force-feed us. Several male inmates held my arms and some pinched my nose. Then one inmate added milk powder and salt to a bottle of water and stuffed it into my mouth. I almost suffocated as my nose was still pinched. My ears began to ooze pus and blood, and I lost most of my hearing. I also had pain in the left side of my lower back.
The detention center doctor ordered my sister Gu Xiangyang to pay 500 yuan for my medical treatment, but I was transferred to the Harbin Drug Rehab Center the next day. The money was never returned.
During the required physical examination, I was found to have a fever and a shadow in my lung x-ray. The drug rehab center refused to accept me, as China was plagued by the SARS epidemic at the time. I was thus released.
Upon returning home, I resumed practicing Falun Gong and my hearing recovered in three days. I coughed for two weeks and often coughed out some pus. After that, my lung condition also disappeared.
Arrest in 2004 and Forced to Live Away from Home
Police chief Song and officer Liu Zhigang broke into my home in late September 2004. They took away a set of Falun Dafa lecture DVDs and my purse. Then they took me to the police station and ordered me to write a statement promising not to appeal for Falun Gong in Beijing or the provincial government, or attend other Falun Gong-related activities.
Song, along with Yu Hongjun and He Wenqing of the Jidong County Domestic Security Office, scaled my neighbor’s fence and broke into my home again around 5 p.m. on November 16, 2004. They confiscated my computer. Yu interrogated me and attempted to force me to provide information about other practitioners. I refused to comply and he beat me. My face became swollen as a result. Yu then ordered an officer to beat me with a PVC pipe on the soles of my feet. I felt extreme tightness in my chest, as if my heart was falling out.
I was transferred to the Jidong County Detention Center in the middle of the night. A month later, my arrest was approved and the police submitted my case to the procuratorate.
I started a hunger strike in May 2005 and was repeatedly force-fed. My nasal cavity was severely injured and the pus I vomited had blood. On the thirteenth day of the forced-feeding, my body kept twitching and the doctor couldn’t detect my pulse anymore. Fearing that I might die there, they released me on bail, after extorting a 2,000-yuan bond from my sister. When the Jidong County Domestic Security Office called me three weeks later and ordered me to report to the court, I was forced to live away from home to avoid being sentenced.
Arrest in 2012 and Forced to Live Away from Home the Second Time
After seven years of living in displacement, I was arrested at 6:30 p.m. on May 29, 2012, by Liu Zhigang and another officer from the Donghaikuang Police Station. The police revealed that they had been monitoring my cellphone for some time. They raided my place, confiscating a laptop, three cellphones, a printer, DVD burner, Falun Gong books and 2,000 yuan in cash.
The police first took me to the police station and then to the Chengzihe Domestic Security Office. They tied me up in a metal chair and ordered me to provide information about other practitioners. I refused to comply. Liu Li, the head of the Domestic Security Office, verbally abused me.
For the rest of the evening, officer Yang Hongbao kept beating me and verbally abusing me. He also poured water into my clothes. I shivered due to the cold.
Seeing that I refused to say anything, Liu ordered officer Liu Xidong to put a photo of Falun Gong’s founder under the metal chair and a Falun Gong book under my left foot. Then officer Yang pulled my hair. He also beat me, bruising my chest and left leg. They didn’t stop the beating until midnight. When I was transferred to the Jixi City No. 2 Detention Center the next day, my legs were swollen and I had much difficulty walking.
The Chengzihe Domestic Security Office later transferred my case to the Jidong County Domestic Security Office. Officers Han Hengchang and He Wenqing came to the detention center to interrogate me. I still refused to answer their questions.
I started a hunger strike on July 1 to protest the arbitrary detention. On the fifth day, the police took me to the hospital for a checkup, where I was found to have extremely low blood pressure and yet very rapid heart beat. The doctor suggested that I be admitted immediately; otherwise I could die at any time. Not wanting to treat me, the police released me on bail.
When my sister picked me up, officer Han demanded 20,000 yuan as my bond. She only had 8,000 yuan and she gave it all to Han. Three weeks later, Han called my sister and ordered me to go to his office. Knowing that they were still trying to persecute me, I was forced to live away from home again.
Arrest in 2013
Due to cellphone surveillance, the police found my whereabouts a year later and broke into my residence at 6:00 a.m. on July 11, 2013. My laptop, five cellphones, multiple flash drives and 300 yuan in cash were taken away.
I was taken to the Jidong County Detention Center in the afternoon. That same day, I started a hunger strike to protest. Four days later, a doctor surnamed Li inserted a filthy rubber rube into my left nostril to force-feed me. I burst into tears due to the pain. I also felt extremely nauseous.
It took a long time for the doctor to fully insert the tube into my stomach. Then he injected one liter of brine water mixed with milk powder into my stomach. As soon as he removed the tube, I began to vomit. Even the inmates present felt sorry for me and cried.
When doctor Li force-fed me again, he left the tube in my stomach to prevent me from vomiting. The strong rubber smell of the tube in my throat made me very sick.
By the time the doctor force-fed me the fifth time, both of my nostrils were very swollen and my nasal and gastric mucosa were severely damaged. He decided to stop force-feeding me and switched to IV drips. From time to time, I felt pain in my esophagus.
On the ninth day of my hunger strike, the doctor could no longer detect my blood pressure and my body shook involuntarily. I was released the next day.
Torture illustration: force-feeding
I had a very bad feeling on July 30, 2013. Fearing that the police may come to arrest me again, I packed some clothes and left home. Shortly after I left, the police indeed arrived. They stayed outside of my home for a few days. As I didn’t come back home, they forced my husband to take them to my mother’s home to look for me. My husband was also forced to pay them 200 yuan for gas. When the police threatened to hold him in custody, he paid them 8,500 yuan in exchange for his own release.
The over ten years of living away from home caused me extreme mental trauma and financial difficulty. Without an ID, it was very difficult for me to find a job or a rental place. Because of phone surveillance, I couldn’t call my family. I couldn’t live a day in peace, without fearing being arrested again at any time. The ongoing persecution I experienced also caused my parents and my in-laws to live in fear and under tremendous pressure.