(Minghui.org) A 65-year-old woman in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to seven and a half years on March 18, 2026, because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhou Chuanying was arrested during a police sweep on August 21, 2025. At least 20 other Falun Gong practitioners in Shuangcheng District and Acheng District were seized on the same day, including her husband Mr. Yang Zhenyi, Mr. Liu Fujin, Mr. Liu Xiukuan, Mr. Li Yanwen, Ms. Zhao Xihua, Ms. Liu Shuzhen, Mr. Shi Zuosheng, Ms. Chen Xiumei, and Ms. Li Hongmei.
Ms. Zhou was sentenced on March 18, 2026, by the Daoli District Court. Mr. Liu appeared in an unknown court at an unknown date. Ms. Liu, Mr. Shi, Ms. Chen, and Ms. Li were tried by the Acheng District Court on March 30, 2026. Other practitioners’ prosecution status remains unknown.
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhou and her husband Mr. Yang, both retired employees of the Weihe Forest Bureau in Shangzhi City, Heilongjiang Province, have been targeted for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhou took up Falun Gong in 1997 and recovered from rheumatic and gynecological diseases in less than a year. After the persecution began in July 1999, she and her husband held firm to their faith and were arrested multiple times.
Ms. Zhou went to Beijing on October 28, 1999, to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested on Tiananmen Square and escorted back to Heilongjiang. She was held at a local detention center for one month. She made another trip to Beijing on March 3, 2000, and was arrested again. She was taken back to a local detention center. After an unknown amount of time, her local street committee picked her up and held her at a brainwashing center for six months.
A group of officers broke into Ms. Zhou’s home in late December 2000, and took her to a local detention center. She was detained for two weeks.
Mr. Yang went to Beijing to appeal in February 2002 and was arrested. He was given 18 months of forced labor at the Tuanhe Labor Camp in Beijing. After he was released on August 2003, he was taken back to Heilongjiang and held at a local detention center for an unknown amount of time.
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