(Minghui.org) A former teacher in Yinan County, Shandong Province, was sentenced to one year for sending a friend a message reading “Falun Dafa is good” on WeChat (a social media platform).
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, has been persecuted in China since July 1999. Mr. Pang Zhihua, around 50, was arrested in October 2025, after the internet police in Yinan County discovered his WeChat message. Officers from the Yinan County Domestic Security Office and the Shuanghou Town Police Station were responsible for his arrest. They took him to the Yinan County Detention Center and interrogated him with torture.
Mr. Pang’s family was not notified of his indictment or trial. Only recently were they told about his secret prison sentence for “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” the standard pretext used by the Chinese communist regime to frame and sentence Falun Gong practitioners.
This is not the first time that Mr. Pang has been targeted for practicing Falun Gong. He boarded a train to Beijing shortly after the persecution began in July 1999 but was intercepted by local officials Yu Houping and Gao Hongbin. They took him to a brainwashing center and transferred them to the Shuanghou Town Police Station that night. They kept him in a cage and forced him to write a statement promising not to appeal for Falun Gong again. He was released days later.
Mr. Pang managed to go to Beijing in spring 2000 but was arrested. He was taken back and held at the Yinan County Detention Center for over one month. The police extorted 3,000 yuan from his family before releasing him. His employer, Suozhuang Elementary School, terminated him even though he was a well-liked teacher. He did odd jobs to make a living.
Prior to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, Mr. Pang was arrested again on May 27 that year because he was deemed a target. The police confiscated his Falun Gong books, audio teachings of Falun Gong, some informational materials, a satellite dish, an MP3 player, and two cell phones.
Mr. Pang was given one year of forced labor. After he was released, he faced constant harassment from the police. He had to live away from home and move around to avoid being arrested.
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