(Minghui.org) It was recently learned that a 66-year-old woman in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, was sentenced to four years for giving a 7-year-old boy an amulet with the words “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
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. Lai Dongping’s sentencing stemmed from her arrest at the Dongfang Park on July 11, 2023. The aforementioned boy’s parents reported her to the Chayuan Police Station after she gave their son the keepsake. The police arrested her and took her to the Fuzhou City Second Detention Center.
One uniformed officer from the Chayuan Police Station and three plainclothes officers from the Jin’an District Domestic Security Office raided Ms. Lai’s home on the night of her arrest. They did not show her family any IDs or search warrant. They confiscated her laptop, several dozen Falun Gong books, and some banknotes with printed Falun Gong messages (as a way to raise awareness of the persecution). The police returned the next day to have her family sign the list of confiscated items. Her loved ones have never received her detention notice.
Zhang Xiang of the Jin’an District Domestic Security Office submitted Ms. Lai’s case to the Mawei District Procuratorate in August 2023. She was soon indicated and appeared in the Mawei District Court on December 7, 2023. Her family recently learned of her conviction but is unclear when exactly she was sentenced. She is appealing her verdict.
Taking up Falun Gong
Ms. Lai is a retired medical worker of the Fujian Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She used to suffer from heart disease, chronic atrophic gastritis, a gastric ulcer, arthritis, migraines, eczema, dermatitis, and other health issues.
She watched a video teaching given by Master Li Hongzhi (the founder of Falun Gong) in 1998 and was elated to see the eczema rashes on her hands were gone the very next day. She thus formally took up Falun Gong and her other illnesses gradually disappeared.
Once a headstrong, impatient, and unreasonable person, Ms. Lai also became much kinder, calmer, and more considerate. Once a patient brought in his liquid medication to her workplace for a medical worker to inject to him. Ms. Lai was assigned to do the injection but could not find the medication. She then asked her supervisor about it. The patient flew into a rage and accused her of losing his medication. She remained calm and explained that they were looking for the medication. He was still mad and she apologized to him (even though she was not in charge of receiving and storing his medication for later injection). He eventually calmed down.
Her supervisor witnessed everything and was amazed that Falun Gong made Ms. Lai so calm in the face of false accusations.
After the persecution began in 1999, Ms. Lai was repeatedly targeted for upholding her faith.
Detained for 15 Days in 1999
Ms. Lai went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in late October 1999. A group of plainclothes officers surrounded her outside the State Council’s Appeals Office and claimed that they were also Falun Gong practitioners. She believed them and said she was from Fujian Province when asked where she came from. They then said she needed to write an appeal letter first. She returned to her hotel to write her letter. When she came back to the appeals office the next day, the officer called in police to watch her before the Fuzhou City’s Liaison Office in Beijing came to pick her up.
She was then escorted back to Fuzhou and held for 15 days.
Deceived into Going to Brainwashing Center in March 2001 and Held for More Than One Month
One March day in 2001, Ms. Lai’s supervisor asked her to go with him and the head nurse to some place to collect blood samples. She thought there was some sort of virus outbreak and got in a van as instructed. She was surprised to see the Party secretary and security heads on the van too.
The van drove into a legal study center (a brainwashing center in disguise) located inside a labor camp. Ms. Lai assked the Party secretary as to why they did this to her when the task given was to “collect blood samples.” He said they had no way but follow the higher-up’s order to take her to the brainwashing center.
Her supervisor then realized he was duped too and kept saying, “Despicable! Despicable!” He had actually called in sick that day but was ordered to still report to work. He and the head nurse were then told to collect blood samples.
Ms. Lai was held at the brainwashing center for more than one month, during which time she was forced to watch anti-Falun Gong videos and write thought reports every day. Sometimes people there would have a talk with her in the middle of the night. The labor camp director even kept her at the labor camp for three days and threatened to give her forced labor if she did not behave in the brainwashing center.
Once the people assigned to watch Ms. Lai verbally abused her for several straight hours. This along with the never-ending brainwashing and threats caused her to suffer memory loss and anxiety for a period of time.
Given One Year of Forced Labor Following Arrest in October 2001
Ms. Lai was arrested in October 2001, after being spotted putting up Falun Gong flyers outside the Fuzhou City Government Building. The police asked where she lived and she refused to answer. Later a tall and large woman officer took her to a room and punched her hard on the head. Her face became swollen and numb, and the officer was exhausted from beating her. She was eventually deceived into revealing her address, and a group of officers then took her back home and confiscated her Falun Gong books and other valuables.
The police gave Ms. Lai 15 days of detention at a local lockup after raiding her home. She was transferred to a labor camp on the 16th day to serve a one-year term.
In order to force her to renounce Falun Gong, the labor camp guards only allowed Ms. Li 2-3 hours of sleep every night. They took turns talking to her the rest of the day in an attempt to break her will and make her succumb.
While Ms. Lai was in detention, her mother felt so hopeless that she committed suicide and became an indirect victim of the persecution of Falun Gong.
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