(Minghui.org)
Name: Li WeilingChinese Name: 李玮玲Gender: FemaleAge: UnknownCity: N/AProvince: ShanghaiOccupation: Food store employeeDate of Death: August 2024Date of Most Recent Arrest: UnknownMost Recent Place of Detention: Unknown
A Shanghai resident was sentenced to a five-year prison term in 2021 for sharing information about Falun Gong on WeChat (a popular Chinese social media platform). Ms. Li Weiling was allowed to serve time outside of prison due to her poor health. However, due to strict police surveillance and constant harassment, her health continually declined and she developed stomach cancer. She passed away in August 2024.
After the Chinese Communist Party began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Li was sentenced three times, for a total of 17 years, for upholding her faith. Her older sister, Ms. Li Weihong, also a Falun Gong practitioner, died in the persecution in April 2003, at the age of 43. The sisters’ mother, Ms. Yu Peiying, in her 90s, was also repeatedly arrested for practicing Falun Gong, resulting in a two-year labor camp term and a three-year prison term. Due to her advanced age, her family didn’t dare to break the news of Ms. Li Weiling’s death to her, fearing that she may be unable to cope.
Ms. Yu’s husband was traumatized by the persecution of his loved ones. After experiencing countless episodes of harassment and intimidation by the authorities himself, he developed a severe heart condition and diabetes. He was often taken to the hospital for resuscitation. During the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, he collapsed upon learning that Ms. Li Weiling was being harassed again. When Ms. Li rushed over to visit him, the elderly man, who had become bedridden and incontinent, held her hands and said in a trembling voice, “I’m so afraid that you might be arrested again.” He passed away four months after Ms. Li’s arrest in March 2011.
Ms. Li went to Beijing shortly after the onset of the persecution in 1999, to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was arrested, and held in a psychiatric hospital and injected with nerve-damaging drugs.
Ms. Li returned to Beijing to appeal in 2000 and was arrested again. She was held at the Changning District Detention Center after being taken back to Shanghai. She held a hunger strike to protest the persecution and was force-fed. As the police used excessive force when inserting the feeding tube into her, her esophagus was damaged and blood squirted out.
After Ms. Li was released, she faced constant harassment by the police and the local residential committee, and was forced to live away from home to avoid the persecution. She was arrested in Shandong Province on December 25, 2000, for raising awareness about the persecution there. She was escorted back to Shanghai and sentenced to eight years in prison.
At the Shanghai Women’s Prison, guard Cheng Yueyuan forced Ms. Li to stand for long hours without moving. As a result her legs became swollen and bruised. One day in the middle of the night, guard directors Zhang Hongmei and Hou Ruiqin rushed into her cell and removed her blanket to check whether she was doing the Falun Gong meditation exercises. They ordered that she must keep her legs straight while sleeping and wasn’t allowed to cross her legs into the meditation pose.
Because Ms. Li refused to do the forced labor, between May and July 2004, guard Wang Xinlan often interrupted her sleep at night. Despite her dangerously high blood pressure (her systolic pressure was over 200 mmHg, when the normal level is 120 mmHg or lower), they held her in a solitary confinement cell full of mosquitos and flies. She was forced to stand or sit on a small stool motionless during the day, while listening to audios smearing Falun Gong, and wasn’t allowed to go to bed until 11 p.m. In the heat of the summer, she wasn’t allowed to take showers, but was only given some water to wipe her body.
When Ms. Li was hospitalized for high blood pressure and a heart condition in April 2006, she was also found to have gallstones, cholecystitis, bile duct inflammation, and unidentified masses in her brain that caused her to faint due to lack of oxygen. Her family applied for medical parole for her, but the prison didn’t approve it. Her family visit was also restricted to once every three months, and her parents and brother weren’t allowed to see her.
During Ms. Li’s prison term, her family also endured tremendous pressure. Her husband had a well-paying job as a chef. Due to implications from the persecution, he had a significant pay cut and was assigned to wash dishes. With the resulting financial constraints, their daughter couldn’t afford to receive a surgery when she had an acute illness. Ms. Li’s husband also struggled with a severe medical condition, and he also couldn’t afford treatment.
On March 19, 2011, only two years after Ms. Li was released, she was arrested again by Wang Yu, the director of the Changning District Domestic Security Division. She was sentenced to a four-year prison term by the Changning District Court on November 23, 2011.
75-Year-Old Ms. Yu Peiying Arrested Again by 610 Office Agents in Shanghai
An Entire Family is Persecuted: One Daughter Dead, a Mother and a Second Daughter in Prison