(Minghui.org) Ms. Huang Zhiping, a resident of Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison shortly after a court hearing on September 3, 2020, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
This is not the first time that Ms. Huang has been arrested for practicing Falun Gong. Prior to the latest sentence, she was thrice given forced labor terms and thrice held at a brainwashing center. Her home was also ransacked at least ten times. The long-term persecution caused her husband and her father to pass away; her daughter, 30, and her son, 20, to grow up in fear; and her sister, who is also a Falun Gong practitioner, to become mentally disoriented due to involuntary drug administration in custody.
Latest Arrest and Sentence
Ms. Huang was arrested at a market by police from the Gaoping District police department on September 9, 2019. The police ransacked her home after taking away her house keys. Her Falun Gong books, printer, computer, and cash were confiscated.
A year after she was detained, Ms. Huang was put on trial at the Gaoping District Court on September 3, 2020. Her children and some of her relatives were present. Her two lawyers pleaded not guilty on her behalf.
During the trial, her lawyers argued that no law in China criminalizes Falun Gong, so their client should never have been prosecuted for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Ms. Huang had also written her defense statement but due to unknown reasons, she couldn't talk during the trial. She could only write, nod, or shake her head. The judge then instructed the court bailiff to read Ms. Huang's statement on her behalf. However, he stopped after a few sentences as Ms. Huang had written in the opening that she has been following Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person.
After the judge ordered the bailiff to stop reading her statement, Ms. Huang wrote a message to the bailiff several times, asking him to finish reading her statement. But the judge didn't allow it. When the trial ended, Ms. Huang wrote to her family, “I'm not guilty, history will prove everything.”
Not long after the hearing, Ms. Huang was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.
Incarcerated at Labor Camps and Brainwashing Centers
Ms. Huang was a worker at Guang'an Silk Factory. Her husband, Mr. Wang Daode, was a train conductor. Ms. Huang treated Mr. Wang’s daughter from a previous marriage as her own and introduced Falun Gong to her in 1997. The girl, who was suffering from leukemia at that time, soon found herself illness free.
Ms. Huang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong a few times between September and October 1999. She was arrested and sent to a forced labor camp for a year after returning home in November.
As Mr. Wang was also arrested for appealing for Falun Gong in Beijing in October 1999, their 9-year-old daughter and 10-month-old son were left at home with no one to care for them. The little boy cried for seven days and refused to eat or drink anything when his sister tried to feed him.
The police ransacked Ms. Huang’s home many times and confiscated her Falun Gong books and a gold necklace that her friend gave her as a wedding gift. The police also threatened to arrest and detain her daughter.
A few days later, when her neighbor took her daughter to visit her, the young girl cried, “I'm so scared, mom. Please come home quickly!”
Ms. Huang later asked her brother to help take care of her son. But the boy once again witnessed the police ransacking his family’s home. From then on, whenever the boy saw a police officer, he would tell his mom to run away.
Less than two months after returning home, Ms. Huang was arrested again when she took her son to visit her father on January 19, 2001. A dozen police officers came in the dead of night and knocked on the door. After her father opened the door, the officers rushed in and started ransacking the home, confiscating one Falun Gong book. The police arrested Ms. Huang and gave her two years of forced labor.
Ms. Huang was released home early in 2002 but was harassed frequently by the authorities. Due to the frequent harassment and financial difficulties, Ms. Huang went to Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province to work in 2003. However, the authorities pressured her husband to call her back.
When Ms. Huang returned in May 2004, the authorities arrested her and she was given another two years at Nanmusi Forced Labor Camp.
At the forced labor camp, she was made to work for 16 hours every day and barred from using the restroom. If she needed to use the restroom, she had to admit she was an inmate who had committed serious crimes. She was beaten and made to write thought reports. She became disoriented and lost control of her hands and legs; her lungs became severely swollen and she had difficulty breathing. Despite being in critical condition, she was not allowed to be released.
Ms. Huang was also being paraded on the street, interrogated and humiliated by the police. When she was arrested, the police stripped her clothes and body-searched her. Her more than 3,000 yuan in cash, a few bank books, and a Falun Gong book were confiscated. Her confiscated belongings were handed over to Xiaolong Police Station.
After she was released from the labor camp, she went to Xiaolong Police Station to request the return of her confiscated belongings but was only given 1,000 yuan in cash. The director said that the rest of her money had been used for their transportation fees, food, and drink.
When Ms. Huang was given forced labor for the third time, her husband was arrested and taken to the local brainwashing center where he was detained for a month. Their children were left alone and had to rely on their neighbors for food. The police also went to the children's schools and broadcasted to the whole school that their parents were arrested for practicing Falun Gong. As a result, the children were discriminated against and became withdrawn.
Ms. Huang was also arrested and sent to the same brainwashing center.
When the communist regime was having a meeting in Beijing between September 28 and October 24, 2007, the authorities went to Ms. Huang's home to arrest her. She was taken to the brainwashing center and detained for a month.
Ms. Huang was again detained at the brainwashing center for a month during the 2008 Olympic Games.
On April 22, 2010, Ms. Huang had returned home from the market when she received a call from a town official. The official called for the police to arrest Ms. Huang and send her to the brainwashing center.
Husband Passed Away
After the persecution started, Mr. Wang was detained at the Gaoping Detention Center twice and sent once to the brainwashing center.
When Mr. Wang came back from Beijing in October 1999, he was arrested and taken to the Nanchong Detention Center to be tortured—inmates used a metal brush to scrub his body. He was released after his family paid 8,000 yuan to the detention center.
However, the officers from Xiaolong Police Station went to the bank to freeze all of Mr. Wang's family accounts and then told him to pay for the air ticket that they went to Beijing to pick him up.
To feed his family, Mr. Wang had to sell his new motorcycle, which was worth more than 3,000 yuan, for a low price of 300 yuan, to get immediate cash.
Mr. Wang used to be a train conductor and earned a few thousand yuan a month. However, because of his practicing Falun Gong, the company changed his position and assigned him to be a janitor, with a monthly salary of 300 yuan. The salary was not enough to feed his family as it cost 200 yuan to hire a babysitter and his son was still young.
In 2000, his salary was raised to 600 yuan but his bonus was withheld by his manager. If he had to buy something for his family, he had to go with his manager, who then made the payment for him. After becoming a janitor, Mr. Wang had no day off and had to ask for permission at the police station if he needed to take a leave. In addition, the police often harassed the family.
Mr. Wang passed away on October 21, 2017, due to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage.
To settle her late husband's housing matters, Ms. Huang went to the neighborhood committee in October 2017. The committee director agreed to assist her and told her to wait in the office. After a while, an instructor from the police station and the deputy secretary from the committee came and asked Ms. Huang to renounce her faith. She refused.
Mr. Wang’s workplace first agreed to distribute allowance to Ms. Huang, but later reversed their decision.
Persecution of Other Family Members
After the persecution started, Ms. Huang's father was extremely sad to see his daughters, sons-in-law, and other relatives being detained simply for practicing Falun Gong. In April 2004, Ms. Huang's father passed away when she was sent to the labor camp for the third time.
Ms. Huang's sister, Ms. Huang Zhilan, is also a Falun Gong practitioner. She was arrested twice when doing the Falun Gong exercises at the riverside. The police took her to a mental hospital and forcefully injected her with drugs that damaged the central nervous system, causing her to become mentally disordered. Her husband was also detained multiple times for practicing Falun Gong. As a result, there was no one to care for their young son.
Parties Involved in the Persecution of Ms. Huang:Zhang Xiao (张瀟), vice captain of Gaoping District police department: +86-18113931711Jiang Mingli (蒋明礼), director of Nanchong City detention center: +86-817-2584133
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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