(Minghui.org) An 84-year-old man in Laixi City, Shandong Province, remains in detention because he practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Shi Guoxing was first arrested on August 25, 2025. Several officers from the Niuxibu Police Station raided his home that morning and seized him. They targeted him after surveillance videos captured him putting up self-adhesive stickers which had information about Falun Gong. They took him to the police station and released him on bail hours later.
Officers from the Laixi City Police Department broke into Mr. Shi’s home at 8 a.m. on October 1, 2025 and confiscated his Falun Gong books, printer, and other valuables. They took him and his 82-year-old wife, Ms. Song Zhenfang, to the Sunshou Police Station.
The couple’s family requested their release. The police sent Ms. Song home at 7 p.m. but put Mr. Shi at the Laixi City Detention Center, where he remains.
This is not the first time the couple has been targeted for their faith, which they took up in 1998.
Ms. Song started practicing Falun Gong and recovered from numerous diseases, including back pain, joint pain, neurasthenia, insomnia, and hemiplegia, in two months. Mr. Shi was amazed and joined her in the practice. His left arm, which often hurt to the point of being unable to lift a rice bowl, healed in one month.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, the couple held firm to their faith and were repeatedly targeted. In October 2000, the local police station instructor led four officers and raided the couple’s home, confiscating their Falun Gong books and informational materials. The police also discovered a bucket of paint in the house and asked what it was for. Mr. Shi said he used it to spray paint Falun Gong messages on public walls.
The police then ordered Mr. Song to go with them. He refused to comply and they dragged and pushed him to their cruiser. After holding him at the Laixi City Detention Center for one month, they gave him a one-year term at the Qingdao City Labor Camp.
During Mr. Shi’s detention, his rabbit breeding business, which he had invested 20,000 yuan in, suffered huge losses. Some rabbits were stolen and others died. Ms. Song had no choice but sell the business at an extremely low price.
Mr. Shi and Ms. Song went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on February 4, 2001 and were arrested. They were taken back to Laixi and held for two months.
Two officers showed up one day in July 2001 and ordered the couple to report to their chief. The police however drove them straight to a brainwashing center located in a school. More Falun Gong practitioners were taken there in the days that followed. The couple was held for more than 40 days.
During another detention at a school, Mr. Shi was spotted studying Falun Gong teachings by a head guard and ordered to turn in the teachings. He refused and the guard summoned a hitman to brutalize him. The hitman kicked him on the back with leather shoes. Mr. Shi fell, only to be stomped on the chest by the hitman.
The guard then asked the hitman to stop fearing something might happen to Mr. Shi. That night he was not allowed to use the restroom. He went on a hunger strike in protest and was forced to stand outside on one leg in the freezing weather for more than two hours.
One uniformed officer and four plainclothes agents broke into Mr. Shi’s home at 9 a.m. on May 8, 2014. They confiscated his Falun Gong books and informational materials, computer, laptop, and portrait of Falun Gong’s founder.
Both Mr. Shi and Ms. Song were taken to the Guhe Police Station. He urged the police to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The police called the couple’s son to pick them up two hours later.
Qingdao, Shandong Province: 14 Sentenced, 31 Arrested, 16 Harassed in 2015 for Practicing Falun Gong