(Minghui.org) A 76-year-old woman in Kunming City, Yunnan Province was arrested on August 10, 2023 for telling a young man that “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Ms. An Shunlian was released the next day and placed under house arrest.
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. An credits Falun Gong for enabling her to let go of her resentment towards her ex-husband. He had an affair and demanded a divorce. She refused and he beat her to concussion. She almost died and agreed to divorce him. She suffered from sequela of concussion for years and later also developed gastric ulcer, hepatitis B, leg pain and other diseases.
Ms. An and her second husband, Mr. Yang Nengwen, both took up Falun Gong in April 1998. She soon became healthy and also came to understand that there is a reason behind everything. She no longer harbored hatred towards her ex-husband and was able to fully enjoy her new life with Mr. Yang.
Because of her positive experience with Falun Gong, she never wavered in her faith after the persecution began in 1999. She seized every possible opportunity to share with the public the goodness of Falun Gong and expose the illegality of the persecution. Her simple act landed her in police custody on many occasions during the past 24 years.
Her latest arrest happened in a local hospital in Kunming City. She went there on August 10, 2023 to talk to people about Falun Gong and noted a young man with leg problems. He said that he injured his legs six months ago but that the fractures still had not healed. Ms. An expressed her sympathy and told him that many people recovered from their illnesses or injuries by reciting the auspicious phrases “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” She suggested he try the phrases as well, as it might help with his recovery.
The young man reported Ms. An to the local Zongshuying Police Station instead. The police soon arrived and arrested her. She urged them to stop participating in the persecution of Falun Gong. They refused to listen and cursed her instead.
The police then took Ms. An to a local detention center, which however declined to admit her given her advanced age. The police brought her back to their police station and called her daughter to pick her up. Her daughter said no [as a form of protest against the police] and asked them to take care of her mother since they had taken her into custody.
The police then called Ms. An’s son, who worked out of town, to pick up his mother. He returned to Kunming the next morning and took Ms. An home. The police said that she was officially placed on house arrest starting on August 12. They ordered her to report to them every week and must seek their permission before going out of town.
The police also demanded her 86-year-old husband to report to them along with her the following Monday (August 14).
Past Persecution
Ms. An and Mr. Yang were repeatedly persecuted for upholding their faith during the past two plus decades.
Wife Given Two Years of Forced Labor in 2007
Nine officers arrested Ms. An on April 26, 2007, after one of her colleagues’ son reported her to them for talking to his father about Falun Gong. The colleague had been bedridden and gravely ill for a while, but he recovered after he read the Falun Gong informational materials that Ms. An shared with him. His son, a drug addict, turned in the materials to the police after noticing them at home.
Ms. An was later given two years of forced labor and taken to the Yunnan Province Women’s Labor Camp on May 25, 2007.
Not long before her arrest, Ms. An was in a car accident and suffered comminuted fracture in her right foot. She was still recovering, but the labor camp forced her to do hard labor for extended periods of time. In August 2007, she was found to have contracted cataracts and almost went blind in both eyes. Her legs hurt so much that she couldn’t walk, and her hands became so weak that she couldn’t even hold a rice bowl.
Under the strong demand of Ms. An and her family, the labor camp released her on medical parole on June 6, 2008. Her family spent more than 12,000 yuan to have her cataracts removed at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University.
After the surgery, Ms. An suffered from retinal macular degeneration and required further treatment. The labor camp, however, took her back into custody one month later. Her eyes were aching and shedding tears all the time. In August 2008, she became blind in her right eye.
Her family again strongly requested medical treatments. The labor camp guards then took her to the same university hospital for a check-up between September 14 and 22, 2008. She was found to have binocular uveitis and optic neuritis, and the doctors recommended immediate inpatient care or she risked losing eyesight in her left eye as well.
The labor camp didn’t allow Ms. An to receive inpatient care until October 22, 2008. She was hospitalized for one month, before being taken back to the labor camp on November 25, 2008, when she had only made some minor improvement in her eye conditions.
Ms. An was released from the labor camp on June 18, 2009. Because of the lack of continued medical treatments, her right eye remained blind and her left eye had a visual acuity of 20/100 (meaning she needed to be 20 feet away to see clearly what a person with normal vision could see from 100 feet away).
During her forced labor term, her employer suspended her pension totaling 32,640 yuan. After she was released, she was only paid 80% of her pension.
Both Husband and Wife Arrested and Sentenced to Probation in 2010
Ms. An and Mr. Yang had just stepped out of their apartment building on April 23, 2010 when they were surrounded by 17 officers from the Wuhua District Police Department, including Ma Bin, Liu Jingting, Ma Yinghui, and Yang Yongsheng.
Ma Bin ordered the couple to go with them to their police department, while Yang said they needed to search the couple’s home first. Ms. An refused to do either and urged the police to stop persecuting innocent Falun Gong practitioners like her and her husband.
After hours of standoff, the couple was forced to open the door. The police raided their home before taking them to the Macun Police Station for interrogation.
Three local practitioners happened to come to visit the couple during the police raid. They were arrested as well, but were released together with Mr. Yang that night.
Ms. An was held at the Wuhua District Detention Center for one month before being sentenced to one year probation and fined 2,000 yuan. Her husband was sentenced to six months probation and fined 1,000 yuan.
Both Sentenced to Prison Again in 2016
Mr. Yang and Ms. An were arrested at a farmers’ market by two officers on April 24, 2016. While the couple was being interrogated at the local police station, another group of officers raided their home and confiscated their Falun Gong books and materials, as well as over 1,000 yuan in cash.
The couple was released on bail after the local detention center refused to admit them due to Mr. Yang’s age and Ms. An’s medical history of having contracted hepatitis B.
The local court later sentenced Ms. An to one year in prison with one year probation and a 3,000-yuan fine, and Mr. Yang to six months in prison with one year probation and a 2,000-yuan fine.
Because Ms. An refused to report to the police station every month per her probation requirements, the police broke into her home and took her back into custody. Her prison term was then increased to two years and the probation period was extended to two years as well.
Arrested Again in 2020
Ms. An and Mr. Yang were arrested again in 2020 after being reported for talking to people about Falun Gong. They were later released on 2,000-yuan bail. It is unclear whether they faced prosecution later on.
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