(Minghui.org) A woman in Baishan City, Jilin Province, has been admitted to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison to serve a four-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, Minghui.org learned recently.
Ms. Yuan Shufang, 72, was arrested in 2025. The authorities kept her family in the dark of her case status. Her family confirmed her prison admission recently, but details about her arrest, indictment, trial, and sentencing are unclear.
Taking Up Falun Gong
Ms. Yuan began to practice Falun Gong on July 29, 1997. Many of her long term ailments, including severe heart condition, stomach problem, rheumatoid arthritis, and sciatica, all disappeared in less than one month. She has enjoyed good health ever since and looks decades younger than her actual age.
Earlier Arrests
Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in 1999, Ms. Yuan has been repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith.
She was arrested on February 4, 2000, for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. While held at the Haidian District Police Department, the police ordered the inmates to pour ice-cold water over her and beat her. Her nose bled and she was covered with bruises.
Two days later, on February 6, as she refused to reveal her address, the police forced her to strip down to just undergarments and then stand in the snow barefoot. They poured water on her and covered her feet, neck, chest, and arms with snow. When the snowed melted, they repeated the process two more times.
Torture illustration: buried in the snow
After taking her back into the room, the police shocked her with electric batons, until they ran out of battery.
Ms. Yuan was arrested again on February 17, 2000, and detained for 15 days. After she was released, she returned to Beijing to appeal and was detained for another 15 days. The police extorted 5,000 yuan from her. Only 4,000 yuan was later returned.
Tortured During a 1.5-Year Labor Camp Term
Ms. Yuan’s next arrest was on October 15, 2004, by four officers of the Lushuihe Town Police Station. Four officers carried her into the police car and put her in the footwell. One officer stepped on her face.
After 45 days at the Fusong Detention Center, Ms. Yuan was given a forced labor camp term of 18 months and transferred to the Fourth Team at Heizuizi Forced Labor Camp.
Guards Zhang Guimei, Guan Wei, and Wang Zhufeng, and a doctor surnamed Wei attempted to force her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong. They beat her, held her in solitary confinement, force fed her, shocked her with electric batons, and tied her up in a spread eagle position on a “death bed.” The “death bed” torture caused severe injuries in her limbs and she was unable to put on clothes, walk, or eat on her own for three months.
Torture re-enactment: death bed
During the electric shocks, she was shaking and foaming at the mouth. The guards also increased the intensity of the current to exacerbate her pain. Due to the violent shaking of her body, the friction of her right wrist against the handcuff caused her bone to be exposed. Her feet turned black and blue, too.
When her term expired, the guards refused to release her, with the excuse that she didn’t renounce Falun Gong. They ordered her to do unpaid labor. She didn’t comply and was held in solitary confinement.
Forty-five days after her term was extended, she began to do Falun Gong exercises in protest. The guards extended her term by another six days.
When Ms. Yuan shouted “Falun Dafa is good” in protest, guards Guan and Wang grabbed her collar from the back and kicked her 15 times in a row then another 21 times straight. Her arms were bruised.
The guards also slapped her in the face, handcuffed her to the bed frame, and didn’t allow her to use the restroom. They kicked her again when they saw her doing the Falun Gong exercises. They threatened to detain her indefinitely if she didn’t renounce Falun Gong. She didn’t budge and started a hunger strike to protest.
During Ms. Yuan’s extended term, her husband went to the labor camp twice to demand her release, but to no avail.
After Ms. Yuan was released, the police kept harassing her. The mental distress took a toll on her husband’s health. He passed away in 2013.
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