(Minghui.org) A resident of Pinggu District, Beijing was arrested on May 14, 2023, for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Ms. Li Xiaofeng’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Ms. Li, a hairdresser around 60 years old, was previously given two forced labor terms and one prison term totaling more than eight years for practicing Falun Gong. Her husband died in 2021, not long after she finished her 3.5-year prison term in May 2020. She lives with their unmarried son.
A neighbor saw a few officers talk to her in her front yard on May 14, 2023, and her doors have since remained shut. The neighbor said it’s unclear whether her son had also been arrested, but they haven’t seen him since the police visit.
Past Persecution
Two Weeks Brainwashing Center Detention
Ms. Li was arrested in July 2000 and held for two weeks at the brainwashing center of Tuanhe Labor Camp.
First Forced Labor Term (28 Months)
She was arrested again in February 2001 and given one and a half years of forced labor. Her term was later extended by ten months, and she served time at various places, including Pinggu District Detention Center, Xin’an Labor Camp, and Daxing Women’s Labor Camp.
A male officer kept whipping Ms. Li on the head with a book when she refused to answer his questions during an interrogation session at Pinggu District Detention Center. A female officer also hit her on the head with a broom when she refused to sign the interrogation records.
The guards at Xin’an Labor Camp forced Ms. Li to sit on a small stool all day long every day for a whole year. She was not allowed to sleep in bed at night. The guards often slapped her in the face until they became exhausted.
Torture reenactment: sitting on a small stool
Ms. Li was also subjected to torture dubbed “flying an airplane,” with her body bent down and her arms up behind her back and against the wall. After being in this position for long periods of time, her legs became very swollen.
Torture reenactment: “Flying an airplane.”
Another time guard Cheng Cui’e ordered seven drug addicts to beat her in a washroom at 10 p.m. Her right eye became bloodshot and her body was covered with bruises. A lot of her hair was also pulled out by the inmates.
Ms. Li was forced to do unpaid labor throughout her term. In 2001, she was forced to pack disposable chopsticks at a dispatch center in Beijing (while waiting to be transferred to Daxing Women’s Labor Camp). After she was moved to Daxing Women’s Labor Camp, she was forced to pick vegetables, pack green peas, and fold cardboard boxes.
Second Forced Labor Term (2.5 Years)
Ms. Li was arrested in 2006 and given 2.5 years of forced labor in March of that year. Agents from Pinggu District Domestic Security Office confiscated her Falun Gong books and printer during her arrest.
Like her first forced labor term, Ms. Li again served time at Pinggu Detention Center, Xin’an Labor Camp, and Daxing Women’s Labor Camp. She was brutally tortured in all three facilities, with the Daxing Women’s Labor Camp being the most vicious in brutalizing her. She was forced to sit on a small stool motionless and facing the wall from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. the next morning every day for more than two years. Any slight movement would invite beatings and verbal abuse from drug addicts assigned to watch her. Her buttocks became bruised and festered.
Sentenced to 3.5 Years in Prison
Ms. Li talked to a customer about Falun Gong in her hair salon on November 18, 2016, and gave him some Falun Gong informational materials. The customer reported her to the police. More than ten agents from Pinggu District Domestic Security Office and Lehe Town Police Station soon arrived to arrest her. They also verbally abused her and confiscated some Falun Gong books and other personal belongings from her salon.
The police threatened to arrest Ms. Li’s husband too when he tried to stop them from taking her away.
The Pinggu District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Li on December 21, 2016, and the Pinggu District Court tried her on March 14, 2017, without informing her family. She was sentenced to three and a half years with a 7,000 yuan fine on May 9, 2017.
Ms. Li filed an appeal and the Beijing Third Intermediate Court ruled on June 14, 2017, to uphold her prison sentence. She was transferred from Pinggu District Detention Center to a local prison on July 6 of that year.
Her pension was suspended during her imprisonment.
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Category: Torture of Women
