(Minghui.org) A 68-year-old woman in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was listed in serious condition but was denied medical parole, while she served a three-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Ma Ling, a retired librarian from Yunnan University, was admitted to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison on December 25, 2025. During the required physical exam, she was found to have more than ten diseases, including cancer in the pelvic area, ovarian cysts, moderate anemia, high blood pressure, vaginal bleeding, fatty liver, chronic cholecystitis with gallbladder stones, stones in her left kidney, brain atrophy, aortic calcification, and atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis.
The prison medical personnel said that because of her age, if the cancer was left untreated, it would continue spreading and affect the nervous system and/or metastasize to other organs. Her constant vaginal bleeding would also lead to infection, shock, organ failure or eventually death.
Ms. Ma’s family was notified on December 26 that her anemia worsened. She was admitted to the Yunnan Provincial Prison Administration Central Hospital on December 27 and her condition continued to decline. A prison guard called her family, saying that due to limited capability at the hospital, her prognosis didn’t look good. Yet when the family demanded she be released on medical parole, the prison authorities refused, and claimed the prison had protocols that wouldn’t allow it. But the prison couldn’t cite any details about these “protocols.”
Latest Arrest and Prison Sentence
Ms. Ma was arrested on June 6, 2024, together with her daughter, Ms. Zhang Ji. Over 30 other Falun Gong practitioners were arrested that day.
Ms. Ma and Ms. Zhang were put in criminal detention at the Kunming City Detention Center the next day for, “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” this is the standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong practitioners.
The Xishan District Procuratorate declined to issue a formal arrest warrant for Ms. Zhang on July 12, 2024 due to lack of evidence. She was released later that night. Ms. Ma, however, was issued a formal arrest warrant and remained in custody.
Starting in November 2024, Ms. Ma began to experience abnormal vaginal bleeding. She had examinations at three hospitals and was found to have a 5 cm (2 inches) tumor in her lower abdomen. She underwent a biopsy procedure on April 20, 2025, and it was confirmed that the tumor was cancerous.
The Xishan District Court sentenced Ms. Ma to three years and fined her 10,000 yuan on May 1, 2025. Due to her medical conditions, she was released on bail. She filed an appeal to the Kunming City Intermediate Court.
The appeals court heard her case on September 4, 2025, and ruled to uphold her original verdict the next day. Judge Yang Hui of the lower court issued an order to take Ms. Ma back into custody at the Kunming City Detention Center on December 23. She was transferred to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison two days later, despite the fact that the physical exam done at the detention center indicated that she was unfit for detention. When she was admitted to prison, she was given another physical exam and found to have over ten diseases.
Past Persecution
Since the onset of the persecution in 1999, Ms. Ma and her daughter have been repeatedly targeted because they practice Falun Gong.
Detained for 15 Days for Doing the Falun Gong Exercises in 1999
Ms. Ma did the Falun Gong exercises in a local park on the morning of July 27, 1999, and was arrested. Officers from the Guandu Police Station raided her home and detained her at the Kunming City First Detention Center for 15 days. They charged her with “disrupting social order.”
Detained for 30 Days for Appealing for the Right to Practice Falun Gong in 2000
Ms. Ma and Ms. Zhang went to the Yunnan provincial government on February 15, 2000, demanding to have the freedom to practice Falun Gong. The staffers asked her to write down her request. As soon as she finished, a staffer called the police. She was taken to the Huashan West Road Police Station and interrogated. The police raided her home that afternoon.
A few days later, she was taken to the Kunming City First Detention Center. After she was released one month later, she was put on residential surveillance and the authorities arranged security personnel from the Yunnan University to monitor her.
Serving a 2.5-Year Labor Camp Term in 2000-2003
Ms. Ma and Ms. Zhang boarded a bus to Beijing to appeal on July 18, 2000. When the bus arrived in Qujing City, about 90 miles from Kunming, a few plainclothes officers got on and arrested them. Ms. Zhang was released but Ms. Ma was taken to the Yunnan Province Women’s Forced Labor Camp to serve a 2.5-year term, after she was held for 49 days at the Kunming City Second Detention Center. She was transferred to the Kunming City Drug Rehab Center on December 18, 2001, and was released on January 21, 2003.
Another 3-Year Labor Camp Term in 2004
Ms. Ma was working at the library on September 21, 2004, when a few officers came and took her away. She was interrogated at the police station for more than five hours and then taken to the Wuhua District Detention Center.
Zheng Hongbin of the Wuhua District Domestic Security Office took Ms. Ma to the Kunming City Drug Rehabilitation Center on November 1, 2004, and gave her a three-year labor camp term notice. Yu Hui, deputy director of the Public Security Department of Yunnan University, Wang Yiguang, deputy director of the university library, and another university staffer were present.
Zheng said they gave her the labor camp term because she wrote to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Yunnan Provincial People’s Procuratorate on May 17, 2004, because she sought to hold the perpetrators involved in her past three arrests, responsible.
Sentenced to Four Years in 2014
Ms. Ma and Ms. Zhang were arrested around 6 p.m. on April 19, 2014, while having dinner at a friend’s home. They were held at the Hongshan Police Station all night.
The next day, Ma Yinghui, the deputy captain of the Wuhan District Domestic Security Office, Wang Zhirong, a director of the Hongshan Police Station, and two woman officers raided Ms. Ma’s home. She and Ms. Zhang were transferred to the Kunming City Detention Center shortly after. Their family hired lawyers for them, but the Wuhan District Domestic Security Office and the detention center barred the lawyers from visiting them.
The Wuhua District Court held a hearing of Ms. Ma’s and Ms. Zhang’s cases on October 10, 2014. The judge appointed two lawyers to represent them, even though he knew they already hired lawyers. The mother and daughter refused to be represented by the court-appointed lawyers and the judge adjourned the session.
The second hearing took place on November 28, 2014. Ms. Ma’s and Ms. Zhang’s lawyers entered not guilty plea for them. They also testified in their own defense. The judge sentenced Ms. Ma to 4 years and Ms. Zhang 3.5 years. They appealed to the Kunming City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts. They were admitted to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison on June 9, 2015, and not allowed to file a motion to reconsider their case.
In order to pressure them to renounce Falun Gong, the guards made the mother and daughter sit on small stools without moving for 13 hours a day. Inmates watched them around the clock and even accompanied them when they used the restroom. The inmates beat and verbally abused them at will and didn’t allow them to talk to anyone else. They weren’t allowed to take showers—they could only wash themselves in the cells with water in a small basin. They were also not allowed to have meals in the cafeteria. they could only eat in their cells after the inmates brought the food to them. They had to finish everything given to them, no matter how much food there was. In addition, they could only use the restroom during designated time slots, which were very short.
Ms. Zhang, in her 30s, developed many medical conditions due to the abuses in just a few days.
As a result of the long term sitting, Ms. Ma’s legs became severely swollen and she also had dangerously high blood pressure. She was forced to take “hypertension pills” for nearly three years, but her blood pressure never went down.
Pension Suspended Since 2014
Shortly after Ms. Ma’s conviction in December 2014, the Yunnan Province Social Security Bureau suspended her pension. When she was released on April 20, 2018, the Yunnan University only gave her a 2,002 yuan monthly stipend. She contacted various agencies and also filed a lawsuit against the social security bureau in 2019, but to no avail.
The police, especially officer Pu Jingsong of the Macun Police Station, continued to harass Ms. Ma and Ms. Zhang, severely disrupted their lives.
Related Reports:
Kunming, Yunnan Province: 13 Convicted for Their Faith, 9 Appealed But Lost
Arrested in a Police Sweep, Four More Yunnan Residents Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
Nine Yunnan Residents Sentenced to Prison for Practicing Falun Gong
Former Librarian’s Pension Withheld for Her Faith, Appeal Accepted by Intermediate Court
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