(Minghui.org) A married couple in Huludao City, Liaoning Province is facing prosecution for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
Mr. Xing Jiaqiu and Ms. Zhang Xiuying, both in their 50s, were arrested after the police suspected them of removing posters slandering Falun Gong near their home.
In May 2025, the Lianshan District Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC) put up the slanderous posters near Lianshan Boulevard. Before long, the posters were removed. Zhang Jiandang, the secretary of the PLAC, ordered the Lianshan District Police Department to investigate all Falun Gong practitioners in their jurisdiction.
The police soon narrowed their searches to Mr. Xing and Ms. Zhang, who were living in a rental property on Lianshan Boulevard. Ordered by secretary Zhang, the police broke into the couple’s home on the evening of June 9, 2025, and arrested them.
A third practitioner, Mr. Liu Yan, was arrested as well when he went to visit the couple that night and answered, “Yes,” when the police asked him if Falun Gong was good.
The police took all three practitioners to the Huludao City Lockup for 15 days of administrative detention. When the practitioners’ families went to pick them up on June 24, 2025, they were shocked to learn that their loved ones had been transferred to the Huludao City Detention Center on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization.” They soon hired lawyers for the practitioners.
When Mr. Xing’s lawyer went to the detention center to visit him, he was turned away as the guards claimed that higher-ups didn’t approve the visitation request. The lawyer filed a complaint with the local procuratorate. A police officer who sympathized with the practitioners told him in private that it was useless to file any complaints; the Lianshan District PLAC was behind the case and it was the PLAC that directed them to transfer the practitioners to the detention center; and the PLAC has the final say on the case.
According to Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, a suspect may be held in criminal detention for no more than 37 days, during which time the procuratorate must decide whether to approve his or her arrest. On July 31, 2025, the 37th day of the couple’s criminal detention, the Lianshan District Procuratorate issued formal arrest warrants for them. While the couple remained detained after that, Mr. Liu was released on bail on August 1.
The Lianshan District Police Department submitted the couple’s case to the Lianshan District Procuratorate on September 22, 2025, seeking their indictment.
The prosecutor returned the case twice, citing insufficient evidence. When the case was sent back to the police a second time on December 20, 2025, they broke into the couple’s home without informing their family. The family condemned the officers for trespassing, and one of them said that they didn’t want to come, but had to because of pressure from the PLAC. They took a piece of clothing without providing any paperwork.
The police submitted the case for the third time on January 16, 2026. They only added the clothing as new evidence. The prosecutor indicted the couple on March 3.
This is not the first time that the couple have been targeted for their faith. Mr. Xing was previously arrested on May 28, 2002, and sentenced to 6 years weeks later. He served time at the Nanshan Prison in Jinzhou City and later the Shenyang City Third Prison. He was brutally beaten in both prisons.
The police attempted to arrest Mr. Xing again on February 25, 2012. Neither he nor his wife was home, so the police harassed their parents instead. The police then placed the couple on the wanted list and eventually arrested them on July 24, 2014. They were both sentenced on September 25, 2015, with Mr. Xing receiving 3.5 years and Ms. Zhang 3 years.
Practitioner Xing Jiaqiu Tortured by Guards and Inmates in Shenyang Prison (Photos)
Six Huludao Falun Gong Practitioners Illegally Tried and Sentenced