(Minghui.org) A 65-year-old woman in Dandong City, Liaoning Province, was recently sentenced to 22 months and fined 3,000 yuan because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wei Liming was arrested at home in the early morning hours of January 23, 2026, by seven plainclothes officers from the Zhenxing Police Station. Only one of them produced his ID. They raided her home without a search warrant and confiscated her Falun Gong books and a media player. She was held at the Dandong City Detention Center.
The Zhen’an District Court held a hearing on May 28, 2026. The prosecution witness, who was a stranger, stated that he received Falun Gong materials from someone named “Wei Liming.”
The prosecutor also showed a video of a woman dressed in black, with a black backpack, and claimed that it was Ms. Wei while she was distributing Falun Gong materials. Ms. Wei said she never owned a black backpack and the bag she often used was orange.
Ms. Wei was notified of her prison sentence on June 28, 2026. She has appealed the verdict.
This isn’t the first time Ms. Wei has been targeted for her faith. She previously served a labor camp term and a prison term totaling five years. She was brutally tortured at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
Beaten at the Detention Center
Ms. Wei was arrested together with several other practitioners on the morning of November 30, 1999, for doing the Falun Gong exercises at a public plaza to protest the persecution. They were all taken to the Dandong City Detention Center.
The guards removed the practitioners’ outer pants, and beat their buttocks with bamboo planks. After the bamboo planks broke, they whipped them with leather belts. All of their buttocks were bruised. Some fainted due to the pain. Despite their injuries, the guards still forced them to do unpaid labor. Those who couldn’t finish the daily quota were denied food and water, and were deprived of sleep.
One practitioner, Ms. Zhou Yushuang, fell ill soon after she was released. She was diagnosed with septicemia and passed away less than a year later.
Tortured While Serving Four-Year Labor Camp Term
Not long after her arrest, Ms. Wei was taken to the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp to serve a four-year term.
Because Ms. Wei refused to watch videos smearing Falun Gong on October 17, 2002, she was beaten and had her term extended by three months.
In November 2002, the guards deprived Ms. Wei of sleep. Because she refused to wear the inmate’s name tag, they tied her to a bed for three days and then put her in solitary confinement for one week. Her hands became very swollen due to the abuse.
A brainwashing session started in December 2002. Ms. Wei was held in isolation for over three weeks, during which time she was watched by inmates around the clock. She was forced to stand and was not allowed to sleep. She was also barred from changing her underwear, even during her menstrual period.
Because she tried to clarify the facts about Falun Gong during a brainwashing session on February 19, 2003, Ms. Wei was put into solitary confinement again. She was forced to sit in a double-lotus position for hours on end, deprived of sleep, and not allowed to use the restroom.
Between August and September 2003, Ms. Wei was forced to stand for long hours every day and was deprived of sleep again, because she refused to recite the inmates’ rules. If she closed her eyes, the inmates would prick her. Her legs and feet became extremely swollen and her shoes no long fit.
Ms. Wei was put on strict management in November 2003. She was forced to sit motionless on a small stool between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m. She was only given steamed buns, and she was not allowed to call her family or purchase daily necessities. She could only go to bed when everyone else in her cell had gone to sleep.
Ms. Wei was scheduled to be released in September 2003, but the guards didn’t release her until January 2004. Her parents in their 70s went to the labor camp to visit her around December 2003, but were turned away by the guards, with the excuse that Ms. Wei didn’t renounce Falun Gong.
Sentenced to One Year in Prison
Ms. Wei was arrested again on the evening of December 19, 2007, for distributing Falun Gong materials. The police ransacked her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books. She was held at the Dandong City Detention Center and was later sentenced to one year at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison.
Continued Harassment
In 2014, officer Xu Jun of the Liudaogou Police Station broke into Ms. Wei’s home and attempted to take samples of her blood and DNA. She refused to comply and the police returned days later. They told her, “You are in the first group for the sample collections. Everyone will have to go through this.”
In 2015, for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who ordered the persecution, Ms. Wei was harassed again and was forced to sign some documents.
The police harassed Ms. Wei another time in 2017 and attempted to photograph her. She didn’t comply.
Ms. Wei received a call from her local residential committee in 2020, ordering her to report to their office. She insisted that she didn’t do anything wrong and refused to go.
Ms. Wei was arrested again in 2024 for talking to people about Falun Gong. She was given 15 days of administrative detention, and her family was fined several thousand yuan by the police.