(Minghui.org)
Name: Tang BinChinese Name: 唐滨Gender: FemaleAge: 64City: ChongqingProvince: N/AOccupation: N/ADate of Death: January 1, 2026Date of Most Recent Arrest: February 15 or 16, 2019Most Recent Place of Detention: Chongqing Women’s Prison
An incapacitated Chongqing woman faced constant harassments by the local police and street committee members in the last three months of her life because she held firm to her faith in Falun Gong. Her passing on January 1, 2026, at age 64, capped her decades of persecution simply for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Ms. Tang Bin credited Falun Gong for lifting her out of despair, yet the communist regime repeatedly targeted her for her faith. She was arrested numerous times and served two forced labor terms and one prison term, totaling five years.
Ms. Tang took up Falun Gong on February 8, 1996, and recovered from depression, cervical spondylosis, chronic headaches, gynecological problems, and arthritis in six months. She also mended her broken relationship with her mother-in-law. Back in 1995, her sister-in-law took the only 600 yuan cash she had at home, but her mother-in-law, who lived with her, allowed the “theft” to happen and blamed her for “failing to safeguard her money.” She felt so wronged that she attempted suicide. Her husband found out about it and stopped her in time.
The same sister-in-law took another 3,900 yuan from her home in April 1998, for gambling. This time she did not feel a thing and still treated her mother-in-law and sister-in-law well.
After the Chinese Communist Party started a nationwide campaign against Falun Gong in July 1999, Ms. Tang held firm to her faith and was repeatedly targeted.
She was arrested on August 18, 1999, by instructor Li Houyou from the Guojiatuo Police Station. She was detained for about ten hours. Officers Wang Jinglian and Liu Zucheng from the Wangjiang Police Department arrested her on September 25, 1999, and held her at a brainwashing center for one week.
Ms. Tang went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on November 25, 1999, and was arrested. She was held at the Shijingshan District Detention Center in Beijing for 20 days before being escorted back to Chongqing. She was detained at the Jiangbei District Detention Center for another 30 days. After she was released, her employer, Wangjiang Qinghua Factory, terminated her.
Ms. Tang later started a clothing shop, and secretary Zhou Shumin of Guojiatuo Street ordered her landlord to terminate her lease, and also dispatched people to monitor her.
Officer Liu Yonggang from the Guojiatuo Police Station arrested Ms. Tang in April 2000, and held her at a brainwashing center for one week. Secretary Zhou, officers Wang and Liu, and street committee staffers Pu Dongmei, Jiang, and Liu also participated in her persecution. In May 2000, officers Li Houyou and Li Xiaoxiao held her at the Jiangbei District Detention Center for 15 days.
In August 2000, Ms. Tang was summoned to the Guojiatuo Police Station to sign some paperwork, which turned out to be a one-year labor camp detention notice. During her detention, captain Yu instructed inmates Hu Min and Zheng Shimei to torture her.
Ms. Tang was arrested again in January 2002 and detained for 15 days. In April that year, officers Wang and Liu arrested her again, along with Fan Xia from her former employer’s 610 Office. She was held at a brainwashing center for about seven days. After another arrest in December 2002, she was held at the same brainwashing center for another week.
Four armed police officers, including Li Xiaoxiao, broke into Ms. Tang’s clothing shop on March 18, 2005. Two of them held her shoulders and bent her head backwards. They put some Falun Gong materials that they had brought in next to her and took photos to frame her. They raided both her shop and her home. She was detained for one month, then given one and a half years of forced labor.
While being held at the labor camp, guards Su Chang and Zhao Yuanyuan, along with inmates Liu Haiyan, Wang, and Tang, tortured Ms. Tang using various means, including taping her mouth and stuffing her mouth with rags, beating and verbally abusing her, force-feeding her, keeping her in solitary confinement, making her squat or stand in military postures for long periods of time, depriving her of sleep, barring her from using the restroom or showering, handcuffing her to a bed for two days, having her stand outdoors under the scorching sun, as well as twisting one of her hands behind her back to be cuffed with the other hand pulled over her shoulder.
Ms. Tang went on a hunger strike in protest around May 2005. Su and Zhao went to her daughter’s school and brought the teen to the labor camp. They made the high school senior kneel in front of her mother for 45 minutes in an attempt to weaken the mother’s willpower. The teen was so traumatized that she didn’t do well in the upcoming college entrance exam, which subsequently affected her career later on.
During her labor camp detention, Ms. Tang’s mother was so grief-stricken that she died on May 2, 2005.
Two officers and four community workers, including Chen Zhi, Su Xiaoling, Xie Qiaoli, and Huang Tianping, broke into Ms. Tang’s home one August day in 2011, and threatened to put her in a brainwashing center if she refused to renounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Tang went to take a train on March 1, 2016, and her ID was flagged by the security system as being a Falun Gong practitioner. The railway police held her in an interrogation room for about one hour, during which time they seized her Falun Gong materials, took her photos, and forced her to sign the interrogation records. An officer from the Guojiatuo Police Station then picked her up.
The 2016 episode took place less than one year after the passing of Ms. Tang’s husband, Mr. Li Zineng. While Mr. Li did not practice Falun Gong, he was implicated for his wife’s faith. He was furloughed by his then manager Qian Chunhui in 1999 and not called back to work until five years later when other furloughed workers returned to work in just one month. His new manager, Hu Kezhi, changed him from an inspector to a mover despite his medical conditions. Mr. Li was a machine operator before 1999 and later given accommodation to work as an inspector because of his allergy and photo-keratitis (akin to “sunburn” of the eye’s cornea). Being a mover was physically demanding, and he struggled to do this job. He asked for accommodation, but Hu said no because his wife was practicing Falun Gong.
Mr. Li further developed asthma, cor pulmonale (enlarged right ventricle in the heart), emphysema (a lung condition that damages the air sacs), obstructive pulmonary disease, and pulmonary fibrosis. Yet manager Hu made him work as an operator again. He was unable to do the job and had to take sick leave. Hu threatened to fire him. He lived in fear, and died on March 24, 2015, at age 56.
Ms. Tang was arrested on February 15 or 16, 2019, after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. The arresting officers from the Tangjiatou Police Station raided her home and took her to the Fusheng Detention Center.
Ms. Tang was sentenced to two and a half years in late August 2019 and admitted to the Chongqing Women’s Prison in December that year.
After she was released in August 2021, the social security bureau refused to return her social security card that was confiscated from her during her prison term. Without the card, she was unable to utilize her health insurance, which resulted in her paying for several hospitalizations completely out of pocket.
In the first few months after returning home, Ms. Tang was not given any pension. The social security bureau later gave her a bit over 2,000 yuan per month as a stipend. Her full amount of pension was never reinstated.
Ms. Tang’s health declined and her daughter sent her to a nursing home. She had a medical emergency around June 2025, and her daughter took her to a hospital. After she was discharged, her younger brother took her into his home around September 2025. Officer Zhao Jingwei from the Guojiatuo Police Station and street committee workers (including one staffer surnamed He) kept harassing her at her brother’s home. She died on January 1, 2026.