(Minghui.org) Ms. Zhao Chenyu of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was arrested at home in August 2018 for practicing Falun Gong and her house was ransacked. She was later held in the Xishuangbanna Prefecture Detention Center and was sentenced to 4 years in July 2019. On June 23, 2020, she was taken to the 9th Division at the Yunnan Provincial No. 2 Women’s Prison and placed under strict management until she was released.

Below is an account of the persecution Ms. Zhao endured.

Taking Up Falun Gong

Ms. Zhao, 58, taught at the Kunming City 30th Middle School. She began to practice Falun Gong in November 1998 after a colleague recommended the book, Zhuan Falun to her. Her then-5-year-old son also practiced with her.

When Ms. Zhao brought her son back to her hometown during Chinese New Year, she introduced Falun Gong to her family. Her mother, sisters, brothers, and their children began practicing.

Ms. Zhao strives to live by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and also guided her students with these principles. Her students improved dramatically in their academics, and the environment in her classroom changed and became positive. More than 100 students and teachers in the school also started practicing Falun Gong.

Because she refused to renounce her faith after the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Zhao was arrested multiple times. She was fired from her job following a three-year prison sentence in 2006. Her husband, a police officer, divorced her. Her parents were dealt a blow when she was persecuted. They lived in fear and both passed away while she was in prison.

Latest Arrest

Ms. Zhao was arrested by 9 plainclothes officers on August 27, 2018, shortly after she returned home from visiting her mother in her hometown Jinghong City in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.

The police in Jinghong City traveled over 300 miles to Kunming to arrest Ms. Zhao. Together with the Kunming police, they ransacked Ms. Zhao’s home and confiscated many of her personal belongings, including her Falun Gong books, 3 computers, 2 printers, 17 cellphones, 43 chargers, 35 cellphone batteries, 11 card readers, 57 flash-drives, 18 SD cards, some clothes and thousands of yuan in cash. The police refused to provide a list of the items they confiscated.

During the arrest, Ms. Zhao asked to contact her workplace to tell them what happened, but her request was denied.

Ms. Zhao was taken to the Dongluqiao Police Station in Xishan District. She was ordered to identify the confiscated items. But she refused, knowing the police would use this as evidence against her if she admitted that the Falun Gong related items were hers. She was later forced to sit in a room, together with other detainees who were arrested for stealing or fighting. That night, Ms. Zhao was taken to Xinxinhua Hospital for a physical exam before she was sent to Kunming City Detention Center. Two days later she was transferred to the Xishuangbanna Prefecture Detention Center.

Family Implicated

Around the time Ms. Zhao was arrested, another group of officers in Jinghong City ransacked the homes of her mother and son.

Ms. Zhao’s 84-year-old mother, Ms. Meng Yunying, was given 15 days of detention and fined 1,000 yuan. Due to her advanced age, the police exempted her from serving the detention. However, the mental pressure of the police harassment took a toll on the elderly woman’s health. She fell at home and injured her femur. She was hospitalized and passed away on November 16, 2019, without seeing her daughter Ms. Zhao, for the last time.

The police continued to search for Ms. Zhao’s son but could not find him. He was on a business trip to Pu’er City in the same province. They eventually found him in a hotel and handcuffed him in front of his colleagues without giving any explanation. He and his colleagues were shocked.

The police took out a subpoena and Ms. Zhao’s son was interrogated after he was taken to the police department. The police said that Ms. Zhao sat in his car, which belonged to the company, when she went back to Kunming City. They threatened to confiscate the car if Falun Gong materials were found in it. The incident affected Ms. Zhao’s son greatly. However, it was later confirmed that there were no Falun Gong materials in the car.

Ms. Zhao’s older sister and her niece were also interrogated. The police said the surveillance cameras captured Ms. Zhao’s niece’s electric motorcycle in a district and asked if Ms. Zhao rode it and if she helped Ms. Zhao transport the Falun Gong materials.

Ms. Zhao’s younger sister and brother-in-law were interrogated as well. Ms. Zhao went to her mother’s home in her son’s car, but she rode in her sister’s car when she returned. The car was later parked at Ms. Zhao’s place as her sister and brother-in-law traveled overseas for vacation the next day. The car keys were confiscated during the house raid and the police summoned the sister and her husband to the police station after they returned to China two weeks later. When they drove the car back to Jinghong, the police summoned them and asked if Ms. Zhao sat in their car when they went to Kunming City.

The statements from the siblings were used as witness testimonies against Ms. Zhao.

Fingerprints Forcibly Collected

Ms. Zhao was taken back to Jinghong after being detained for two days in the Kunming City Detention Center. She was first held at the Jinghong City Resort Police Station where she had her photo and fingerprints forcibly taken. Because she refused to cooperate, the fingerprints were not clear and could not be used. Afterwards, she was sent to the Xishuangbanna Prefecture Detention Center.

Days later, Ms. Zhao was taken to another police station where she was tied up on a tiger bench. Two officers pulled her head backwards and tried to take her fingerprints but failed. That afternoon, three more people came. They covered her eyes and pulled her head backwards, while forcibly putting her fingers on the optical scanner. After they finally collected her fingerprints, they took her back to the detention center.

In the detention center, the guards ordered the inmates to monitor Ms. Zhao and see if she did the Falun Gong exercises or talked to people about Falun Gong. The guards also frequently searched the cell and threw away her personal items.

In the first few months when Ms. Zhao was held in the detention center, the police came frequently to interrogate her but she refused to answer their questions.

Her case was later submitted to the Mengla County Procuratorate and she was indicted in February 2019.

Sentenced to Four Years

Ms. Zhao appeared in the Mengla County Court on May 6 and July 26, 2019. During the second hearing, judge Yang Jianwei interrupted Ms. Zhao each time she tried to defend herself.

On November 28, 2019, the judge sentenced Ms. Zhao to 4 years and fined her 40,000 yuan. Ms. Zhao received the verdict the next day. After she appealed it, someone from the intermediate court went to the detention center and asked her about her case. She reiterated that it is legal to practice Falun Gong. Judges Li Bingfeng and Lu Zhengkun of the intermediate court ruled to uphold her original verdict on March 25, 2020 without hearing her case.

Tortured in Yunnan Provincial No. 2 Women’s Prison

Ms. Zhao was transferred from the Xishuangbanna Prefecture Detention Center to Yunnan Provincial No. 2 Women’s Prison on June 23, 2020. She was not allowed to take anything with her except for her indictment and verdict. She was stripped naked upon arrival and forced to wear the prison uniform.

Because it was during the COVID pandemic, everyone newly admitted to the prison had to be quarantined for 15 days. The guards also ordered Ms. Zhao to write statements to admit that she was guilty in practicing Falun Gong. She refused to comply. In retaliation, when the guards gave out dumplings, duck eggs, and chicken eggs during the Dragon Boat Festival, Ms. Zhao was not given any.

The guard put Ms. Zhao on strict management and arranged two inmates to monitor her. She was only allowed to eat only half of each meal. Her restroom breaks were limited to four times a day and her water usage was also restricted.

Ms. Zhao wrote a complaint to the guard about the restriction. The guards lifted the strict management of her and gave her the dumplings and eggs. After 15 days, Ms. Zhao was transferred to the second team in the 9th Ward, where she would face three months of a training period.

Torture re-enactment: Sitting on a small stool

Guard Wang Yanrong ordered Ms. Zhao to write a confession. She wrote facts about Falun Gong and urged the guards not to follow the communist regime in persecuting practitioners. In retaliation she was placed on strict management for a few days.

Practitioners and newly admitted inmates have to do drill formation every morning for 2.5 hours. Afterwards, the inmates go to the workshop to work while practitioners are forced to sit on small stools in their cells until 10 p.m. without any breaks. Inmates who are assigned to monitor the practitioners don’t have to work and can move around freely in the cell.

Solitary Confinement

Ms. Zhao was placed on strict management again after the training ended. The strict management room on the second level was remodeled from two cells and was set up in July 2019 specifically to persecute practitioners. Blue and white strips were taped on the walls; the floor was divided into three areas with yellow tape: A reflection area, study area, and a sleeping area. There were no beds in the sleeping area. Instead, the area was covered with a thin layer of cotton lining and the quilt is very thin and small. Practitioners were allowed to bring only a stool and mug. Ms. Zhao had to sit in the reflection area with two inmates sitting on each side of her, watching her. The inmates threatened to leave her in the room at night if she still refused to write a confession (she was still allowed to return to the cell to sleep at that time).

A few days later, the strict management room was converted back into cells as the prison reached its capacity. The strict management were split into two different levels. Ms. Zhao was in the second level. She had to wake up at 5:40 a.m. every day and brush her teeth with water from a basin. After washing up, an inmate accompanied her to the restroom to dump the water before returning to the cell to sit on a small stool until 11 p.m. Her buttocks festered after sitting on the stool for days. In addition, she was placed on duty every night for two hours.

As the guards restricted Ms. Zhao’s restroom use to four times a day, she did not dare finish drinking the two glasses of water she was allowed to drink every day. She became constipated as a result.

She was given five minutes of shower time, including washing her underwear and socks. The first time she showered, the inmate told her time was up and turned off the water just she soaped up her body. She had to use the little water left in her basin to wash the soap off.

She was allowed to go to the laundry room twice a week and wash her bedding every two months. But before she was allowed to wash her bedding, she had to write an application for it and admit that she was a criminal. During the more than two years she was imprisoned, she only washed her bedding twice and the guards only approved it after she filed complaints about the abuses.

The guards frequently talked to her and tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong and admit that she was guilty. Instigated by the guards, the inmates who were assigned to monitor her also tortured her and verbally abused her.

Forced Labor

In March 2021, Ms. Zhao was scheduled to work in the workshop, every day from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. She had to sew strings of beads every day. If she couldn’t finish her daily quota, she was forced to do drill queue for three hours every day for a week.

Practitioners were not allowed to talk to others. Anyone who interacted with practitioners was reported to the guards and ordered to write thought reports or guarantee statements, have their points deducted, be placed on night duty, or had to memorize the prison rules until midnight. The two inmates in charge of monitoring Ms. Zhao often made trouble for her and humiliated her.

Illustration: Prison sweatshop

In May 2021, the prison held a brainwashing session and hired a group of people to brainwash practitioners. Those who refused to renounce Falun Gong, including Ms. Zhao, were forced to attend the brainwashing session every day for a week.

In March 2021, the prison provided legal assistance for the inmates. When Ms. Zhao met the lawyer and asked if she could file a motion to reconsider her case, the lawyer said yes. Ms. Zhao then prepared the motion and submitted it. However, she hasn’t received any updates so far.

Ms. Zhao wrote a lot of personal notes in the prison and the inmates reported her to Yang Yongfen, the education department guard. Fourteen days before she was released, her books, notebooks, appeal, verdict, and letters were confiscated. Only the verdict was returned to her when she was released.

Guard Yang has been involved in persecuting practitioners since the persecution began and often recorded videos slandering Falun Gong and played them to newly admitted prisoners.

Transformation Campaign Before Prison Release

Six months before Ms. Zhao was released, the education department and prison increased the persecution against her and attempted to forced her to plead guilty. Every morning or afternoon, Ms. Zhao was called from the workshop to the education department building. Eight officers in groups of two talked to her and ordered her to renounce her faith. Yang also forced her to watch videos slandering Falun Gong. When she was pressured to write thought reports, Ms. Zhao wrote about how the communist regime fabricated hate propaganda against Falun Gong. This transformation campaign lasted for 3 months before she was taken back to the workshop.

Twenty-one days before Ms. Zhao’s release, the transformation campaign resumed. She was called to the education department every day and ordered to write a confession and statement to renounce Falun Gong. Yang also instructed an inmate to write the statement on Ms. Zhao’s behalf and have her sign it, but Ms. Zhao refused. In the end, the guard threatened to send her to a brainwashing center if she refused to transform. Ms. Zhao refused to comply.

After Ms. Zhao was admitted to the prison, her family was not allowed to visit her and her son greatly missed her. The prison arranged a virtual meeting between her and her son and deceived her son into working on her, by threatening that she would face dire consequences if she didn’t renounce Falun Gong. Ms. Zhao wasn’t moved and comforted her son, saying that she would be fine.

In another attempt to weaken her will, the guards deprived her of sleep and made her do two hours of night shift in her final days in the prison. The guards never stopped forcing her or making her watch videos slandering Falun Gong or demanding she write a guarantee statement to obey the law before her release.

Harassed After Release

Ms. Zhao remained steadfast in practicing Falun Gong. She was released on August 26, 2022. When she walked out of the prison gate, two officers from her local Dongluqiao Police Station were waiting for her. She refused to go with them and went home with her family who were there to pick her up. The police kept calling her son and ordered Ms. Zhao to go to the police station.

Ms. Zhao went to the police station the following week with her son. Ms. Zhao questioned the police and asked why they attempted to continue monitoring her daily life even after she served the prison term. The police denied it, but demanded to collect her fingerprints. She requested the police show her the laws which said they could collected her fingerprint. When they couldn’t, she said that taking one’s fingerprints is infringing on a citizen’s rights and that it is legal to practice Falun Gong.

For the next three months, three officers from Dongluqiao Police Station went to her home every day to check if she was at home and even took photos. The frequency was later reduced to once a week, then every two weeks, and later once a month. They stopped coming after three months but called her son instead. Ms. Zhao told the police not to disturb her son, thus the police called her once every three months.

Inmates Involved in the Persecution

Below is a brief background summary of the inmates who were involved in persecuting Ms. Zhao and other Falun Gong practitioners.

1. Yang Caizhuan, 38, a drug dealer from Mangshi City, Yunnan Province, was sentenced to life. She was transferred to the 9th Ward in June 2019 and became actively involved in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, especially those who remained steadfast in their faith. She also earned points by reporting on other inmates and was good at pleasing the guards. In June 2021, she kicked the corner of Ms. He Lichun’s eye, causing her face to swell. In May 2023, she grabbed Ms. Liu Fang’s collar and threatened to hit her. Yang is currently trying to "transform" Ms. Liu Yan, a former English professor and mother of a Canadian resident.

2. Zhao Yunna, 36, was sentenced to 11 years for fraud. A native of Yiliang County, Yunnan Province, she was admitted to the prison in May 2020 and has since been involved in persecuting practitioners. She actively submitted suggestions to the guards on how to persecute practitioners. In 2021, she developed an ulcer on her abdomen. Despite receiving treatment, it would not heal and she had to clean the pus every day. Her daughter, a middle school student, became depressed and had to see a psychiatrist.

3. Qin Yueyan, in her 20s, was sentenced to three years for opening a casino, and will soon be released. After she entered the prison, she was involved in persecuting practitioners and monitored them around the clock. She always tried to report them to the guards to earn points and was tasked with monitoring practitioners who were steadfast in their faith.

4. Wu Ahua, 42, from Burma, was sentenced to 7 years for organizing people to cross the border illegally, and is due to be released in 2024. She has been actively involved in persecuting practitioners since August 2019.

5. Keng Weng, 53, from Burma, was sentenced to life for drug trafficking. She was sent to the prison in 2011 but was only recently arranged to monitor practitioners. She actively cooperates with the guards to persecute practitioners.

6. Li Guizhi, 35, from Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was sentenced with a suspended death sentence for drug trafficking. She has actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners. She not only monitored practitioners who were under her watch but also monitored other practitioners and reported them to the guards to earn points.

7. Wang Ruxin, 56, from Burma, was sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking. Since 2011, she actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners and often verbally abused and humiliated them after she was promoted to a supervisory post in 2019. She was released in June 2022.

8. Wang Lei, in her 30s, was sentenced to three years for a traffic accident that caused a death. She is very vicious when monitoring practitioners.

9. Ma Yan, a 43-year-old drug dealer who was sentenced to 15 years, was placed in charge of monitoring practitioners in May 2019 when she entered the prison. Her nationality is unknown.

10. Fan Yanli, in her 30s, was sentenced to life for drug trafficking.

11. Cao Hairong, 47, was charged with contract fraud and sentenced to 13 years. She is due to be released in 3 years. In 2019, she was assigned to monitor practitioners and is currently the leader of the third team.

12. Ma Yumei, a 52-year-old drug trafficker, was given a suspended death sentence. She has actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners. She is currently the leader of the large division. Several years ago, she had a tumor in her abdomen and it has since grown bigger, larger than her breast.

13. Deng Songyun, in her 40s, was given suspended death sentence for drug trafficking.

14. Liu Qifei, in her 50s, was given a suspended death sentence for drug trafficking.

15. Han Xiaoyan is a human trafficker and the leader of the second team.

16. Sun Ying, 27, was a drug dealer from Zhaotong Town, Yunnan Province. She was sentenced to 8 years and released in 2021. She was very vicious when monitoring practitioners and often verbally abused them.

17. Wang Ping, 42, was sentenced to life for drug trafficking. She has been in charge of monitoring practitioners since 2012 and often verbally abused them. In recent years, she had points deducted for engaging in homosexual behavior with other prisoners. Afterwards, she became depressed, was unable to complete her production and fell behind.

18. Chen Naping, 32, was sentenced to 7 years for drug trafficking. She has monitored practitioners since April 2020 and actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners. She is now a supervisor and is due to be released in 2024.

19. Wu Jie, 43, was sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking. She was assigned to be a leader after entering the prison in 2018. She forbids new inmates from talking to practitioners. She is currently a supervisor in the 9th Ward.

20. Wei Xiaoying, 33, was sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking. Since 2019, she has actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners.

21. Zhang Sanmei, 23, was sentenced to 8 years for drug trafficking. Since June 2020, she was assigned to be a supervisor and treats practitioners viciously.

22. Wang Nan, 35, was sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking. Since 2021, she was assigned to be a supervisor and has actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners.

23. Zhang Yuxiang, 44, was given life sentence for drug trafficking. She has monitored practitioners since 2006 and actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners. She was released in 2021.

24. Xia Ping, in her 30s, was given 12 years for drug trafficking. She is very vicious when persecuting practitioners. She was transferred to the 5th Ward.

25. Li Mei, 27, from Burma, was sentenced to 15 years for drug trafficking. She has monitored practitioners since 2017 and actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners.

26. Yang Juli is in charge of monitoring practitioners in the 9th Ward.

27. Mayue Huiqin, 35, from Burma was given a life sentence in 2008 for drug trafficking. She was released in August 2023. While in prison, she was in charge of monitoring practitioners and later became a supervisor. She actively cooperated with the guards to persecute practitioners.

28. Wa, 48, from Burma, was given suspended death sentence for drug trafficking. Prior to her release in 2022, she cooperated actively with the guards to persecute practitioners.

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