(Minghui.org) A woman in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, was released on January 25, 2026, after serving three and a half years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Arrest and Prison Sentence
Ms. Gao Fuling was arrested on July 26, 2022, after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police raided her home and confiscated her computer, printer, and Falun Gong informational materials. She was held at the Bayi Road Police Station overnight. The police didn’t give her anything to eat.
Ms. Gao was taken to a hospital for a physical exam the next day and diagnosed with lung cancer. A female guard at the Yaojia Detention Center initially refused to admit her but then gave in to a male guard’s insistence.
Ms. Gao was tried in the Ganjingzi District Court on March 23, 2023, and sentenced to three and a half years with a 20,000-yuan fine. She appealed with the Dalian City Intermediate Court, which ruled on May 18 that year to uphold her original verdict. The appeals ruling contained multiple errors regarding her name and timing of her sentencing.
The Ganjingzi District Court garnished 20,000 yuan from Ms. Gao’s bank account in March 2023 to pay her fine. She was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison in August 2023, despite her cancer diagnosis.
Tortured in Prison
Ms. Gao was held in the New Admissions team at the Second Division for several days before being transferred to the 12th Division, which was designated to “transform” steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. She was held in the First Team under guard Meng Shuhan.
That first day, two inmates, including He Dan, refused to let Ms. Gao use the restroom. They threatened her with sleep deprivation if she didn’t renounce Falun Gong. The next day, they restrained her in her cell and forced her to watch propaganda videos slandering Falun Gong. Inmate He also threatened to forbid her from sitting down in the future.
Meanwhile, guard Meng forced Ms. Gao to recite the prison rules and do a qigong exercise, which was intended to interfere with her practice of Falun Gong.
Ms. Gao was later found to have elevated blood pressure as a result of the abuses. In late November 2023, she was transferred to the 13th Division, also known as the Hospital Division. The guards forced her to take medication, even after her blood pressure returned to normal.
In the second half of 2024, the prison began to put the inmates’ names and numbers in large font on the backs of their shirts. Ms. Gao refused to wear such shirts. Guard Li Shanshan forced her to squat for 30 minutes every day for a week and didn’t let her use the restroom. Li later presented Ms. Gao with documents slandering Falun Gong and ordered her to sign them. She refused. Li then forced her to write out the prison rules.
Another time when Ms. Gao refused to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong, guard Li locked her up and instructed an inmate to verbally abuse her.
For a period of time, the guards constantly summoned Ms. Gao to their office and tried to force her to renounce Falun Gong. They threatened that if she didn’t comply, she would be followed everywhere she went after she was released and that her children and grandchildren’s education and careers would be adversely affected.
Guard Li also barred Ms. Gao from calling her family or buying food from the prison’s convenience store, claiming that those were reserved for convicted inmates.
One day between March and April 2025, guard Li forced Ms. Gao to accompany her while she inspected the cells on different floors. On every floor, Li forced Ms. Gao to squat by the stairs and wait for her to inspect the cells.
A new prison director, Su, later came. She ordered guard Dong to make Ms. Gao stand every day and not let her bathe. One inmate was assigned to read books slandering Falun Gong to her. This went on for over three weeks. Ms. Gao protested, and she was finally allowed to sit down and to bathe.
The Frequent “Physical Exams” in the Prison
Between January and February 2024, all detainees in the hospital division had two tubes of their blood drawn. The same thing happened again between June and July 2024. The guards never said why it was done or provided any results.
Another time, a mobile van came and gave every inmate a chest X-ray, even though the prison hospital had its own X-ray machine. Two external medical personnel, one in his 60s and the other in his 30s, took the X-rays, which took five days to complete.
Between June and July 2025, every inmate again had a chest X-ray in the mobile van. As with the first X-ray and all previous blood work, no results were ever communicated to the inmates.
Ms. Gao recalled having the chest X-ray while serving an earlier term in the same prison for practicing Falun Gong in 2018. According to an insider, the prison arranged for these exams once a year and had done so for many years, claiming to be concerned about the health of the inmates, who may have breathed in dust from the workshop. However, Ms. Gao questioned why, if they really cared about the inmates’ health, they did not improve the working conditions, provide more protective equipment, and stop making the inmates work overtime and on weekends.
In August 2025, the prison forced all the inmates to undergo another round of physical exams, including height and weight measurements; examinations of the ears, nose, and throat; vision tests; dental exams; cardiac ultrasounds; blood pressure; and gynecological exams. Everyone also had a large amount of blood drawn.
Ms. Gao was released on January 25, 2026. She resumed practicing Falun Gong and now has mostly recovered.
Past Perescution: Three Labor Camp Terms and One Prison Term
Since the onset of the persecution, Ms. Gao has been repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith. She served three labor camp terms and one prison term, totaling over eight years.
Ms. Gao was arrested in May 2004 for distributing Falun Gong materials and given a two-year labor camp term. She served time at the Dalian Forced Labor Camp and Masanjia Forced Labor Camp. At the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, she was once handcuffed and deprived of sleep for days. The guards also forced her to stand for long hours every day for 100 days in a row.
Ms. Gao was released in May 2006 but was arrested again on October 31 that year, after she was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was given another labor camp term (at least one year) in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
Ms. Gao was arrested again on December 1, 2010, for talking to people about Falun Gong and was given the third labor camp term of 1.5 years. Guards in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp hung her up by her wrists. She was released on May 29, 2012.
Ms. Gao’s next arrest was on February 27, 2015. She was held at the Yaojia Detention Center. She appeared at the Ganjingzi District Court on August 4, 2015, and sentenced to four years in January 2016. She was admitted to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on August 23, 2016, and released on February 26, 2019.
Related Reports:
12th Ward in Liaoning Women’s Prison Designated to Persecute Falun Gong Practitioners
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