(Minghui.org) Three Falun Gong practitioners in Dezhou City, Shandong Province, were jailed in July 2025 for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Gu Wenhua, 65, and Ms. Li Rongju, 67, were initially arrested in September 2023 and released on bail soon after. They appeared in the Lingcheng District Court on April 18, 2024, and were each sentenced to three years in prison.
The court held another hearing the next day. The judge forced Ms. Gu to fingerprint a statement to renounce Falun Gong and then reduced her term to two years. Ms. Li’s term was also reduced to two years. It’s not clear whether she was forced to sign the renouncing statement.
Although Ms. Gu was allowed to serve time at home after her conviction, agents of the Lingcheng District 610 Office forced the Dezhou City Detention Center to admit her on June 24, 2025, even when she still had high blood pressure and was unfit for detention. Both she and Ms. Li were taken to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison in the capital of Jinan in July 2025.
Prior to her latest persecution, Ms. Gu has been repeatedly targeted over the years, and her family was extorted a total of 44,500 yuan.
The third practitioner, Mr. Gao Baoliang, a disabled man in his 50s, was arrested on June 19, 2025, and taken to the Dezhou City Detention Center to serve an unknown term given at an unknown time. But the authorities had attempted to jail him before. About ten agents from the Lingcheng District Police Department broke into his home on October 24, 2023, and confiscated his printer and other valuables. They attempted to arrest him, but relented due to his disability. They said he was allowed to serve time outside of prison and installed a surveillance camera outside his door to monitor him. They however, eventually arrested him on June 19, 2025, and put him in the Shandong Province Prison, also in Jinan.
At Least 13 Falun Gong Practitioners Still Held at Dezhou City Detention Center in Shandong Province