(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Hui, 51, who lives in Tumen City, Jilin Province, was recently sentenced to four years in prison for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Hui was arrested on May 15, 2021, and taken to the Tumen City Brainwashing Center. Officers from the Tumen City Domestic Security Office arrested at least seven other local Falun Gong practitioners that day and took them to the same brainwashing center, which is run by the Tumen City 610 Office. About 40 practitioners were detained there at the time.
Ms. Wang was later transferred to a facility in Yanji City, Jilin Province, before she was sent to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison around 2022. The details of her detention, indictment, trial, and sentencing are being investigated.
Ms. Wang and her husband, Mr. Liu Tiejun, credit Falun Gong for restoring their health and showing them how to be better people.
Mr. Liu began practicing Falun Gong in 1994 and soon recovered from his illnesses, including rheumatoid arthritis and tracheitis.
Before Ms. Wang began practicing in May 1995, she suffered from high blood pressure, tachycardia (abnormal rapid heartbeat), rhinitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and stomach problems for many years. Her head always felt heavy due to her hypertension. Whenever her stomach ached, she rolled in bed in pain. Her rhinitis also made her life miserable, especially when it was windy. The slightest breeze made her head hurt.
Just three days after she began practicing Falun Gong Ms. Wang felt better. Within two months all her illnesses were gone.
Ms. Wang and Mr. Liu ran a food stall at a local market. After they began practicing Falun Gong, they strove to live by its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They never shortchanged their customers and their business boomed. Ms. Wang returned the extra change sellers mistakenly gave her when she went shopping. People were amazed by her honesty. In today’s China, most people just pocket the money.
Ms. Wang and Mr. Liu held firm to their faith after the persecution began on July 20, 1999, and were repeatedly targeted.
Wife Arrested in 1999
Ms. Wang decided to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and boarded a Beijing-bound train on December 19, 1999. The railroad police found out she was a Falun Gong practitioner during the security checks on the train and escorted her off the train at a stop in Meihekou City, Jilin Province. Police from Tumen City picked her up and took her to the Tumen City Detention Center, where she was made to sleep on a cold wooden plank with no bedding. It was winter, and she was so cold that she had to pace around her cell to keep warm. She was released fifteen days later.
Couple Arrested in 2000, Wife Given 1.5 Years of Forced Labor
Ms. Wang and Mr. Liu were abducted from their home by officers from the Tumen City Police Department on February 12, 2000. The police interrogated the couple and demanded to know where they got their Falun Gong books. They were both beaten. An officer kicked Ms. Wang’s legs, badly bruising them.
Forty-five days later, Mr. Liu was released. Ms. Wang was given one year of forced labor, which was later extended to 1.5 years.
While she was held at the Heizuizi Women’s Labor Camp in Changchun (the provincial capital), Ms. Wang and other detained practitioners did the Falun Gong exercises together. In retaliation, the guards ordered criminal inmates to tie the practitioners’ hands up and make them stand or squat for hours.
Guard Hou Zhihong shocked Ms. Wang on the back of her head with an electric baton which was set at maximum voltage. Ms. Wang felt a wave of electricity going through her entire body.
Ms. Wang and nine other practitioners went on a hunger strike in protest. On the third day, all ten were taken to the labor camp clinic. Director Lian of the education department in the labor camp ordered a clinic doctor to pry open her mouth with pliers and insert a thick rubber tube into it all the way down to her stomach. She was force-fed corn bran mixed with salt.
Ms. Wang vomited violently, and the corn bran was scattered all over the floor. Guard Hou then force-fed her in an office the next day. With four criminal inmates pressing Ms. Wang down, Hou poured rice porridge into her mouth pried open by one inmate. Ms. Wang struggled to breathe with her nose pinched and her mouth filled with porridge.
About one month later, the labor camp began an intensive round of persecution aimed at forcing all the practitioners to renounce their faith. Those who refused to comply were shocked with electric batons, forced to stand for long periods of time, and deprived of sleep. Once captain Zhang Shumei summoned Ms. Wang to her office and shocked her on the nape of her neck and her back with a high-voltage electric baton.
Ms. Wang was also forced to do hard labor without pay every day and allowed very little time to sleep at night. Sometimes the work involved picking soybeans and carrying bags of soybeans weighing about 160 pounds upstairs. She was given only 15 minutes for lunch and had to stop and resume working even if she did not finish eating. Other work she did included making bird crafts and books.
Because she held firm to her faith, the labor camp extended her term by six months. Due to the physical torture and mental stress, Ms. Wang’s menstrual cycle stopped. She was only in her early 30s. By the time she was released, her hair turned gray.
Couple Arrested in 2005, Husband Sentenced to 2 Years in Prison
At noon on October 20, 2005, Ms. Wang and Mr. Liu were walking home from work when they were spotted by two patrol officers. They chased the couple in their car and called 110 (an emergency police number in China) and the Tumen City Domestic Security Office. The two agencies sent officers to arrest the couple.
The two patrol officers next drove the couple to their home and smashed the lock on the door. They broke in and confiscated 10,000 yuan in cash, a TV set, a VCD player, a portable heater, a cell phone, three computers, and one printer. The couple was then taken to the patrol officers’ station before being taken to the Tumen City Domestic Security Office. After they were interrogated all night the couple was taken to the Huichun Detention Center. Three days later, they were transferred to the Tumen City Detention Center.
Ms. Wang demanded she be unconditionally released and went on a hunger strike. On the seventh day, the detention center director and the in-house clinic doctor handcuffed and shackled her before taking her to a hospital to have a feeding tube inserted. The director told the hospital nurse to use force to insert the feeding tube if Ms. Wang was even slightly uncooperative. With the tube inserted in her nose, she was taken back to the detention center. That afternoon the clinic doctor ordered two inmates to force-feed her through the tube.
After one month at the detention center, Ms. Wang was released on bail. The Tumen City Domestic Security Office demanded she pay a bail bond of 13,000 yuan, but her family was only able to pay 3,000 yuan. The police issued a receipt but did not indicate the amount her family paid. The police never told her family that they confiscated 10,000 yuan from Ms. Wang’s home.
Mr. Liu was later sentenced to two years in prison. He was held at the detention center for one year before he was transferred to Gongzhuling Prison to finish his term. Ms. Wang did odd jobs to support their child’s schooling while her husband was imprisoned.
Husband Detained for 15 Days in 2011
Around 8 p.m. on November 2, 2011, Mr. Liu was arrested when he returned home from work, by police who were watching his home. They raided his home and took him to the Yuegong Police Station. They used a key to poke him in the chest so hard that the key bent. Two officers took turns beating him and questioning him to find out where his wife was. His face was swollen and his mouth was injured. The next day he was taken to a lockup and held there for 15 days.