(Minghui.org) A 74-year-old woman in Wuhan City, Hubei Province was arrested twice in December 2025 for her faith in Falun Gong. She is currently under house arrest after she was denied admission to the local detention center due to health reasons.
Ms. Zhang Jiao’e was shopping at a supermarket on the morning of December 4, 2025, when a plainclothes officer reported her for using a five-yuan bill that had Falun Gong messages printed on it. Seven officers from the Zhifang Police Station went to her son’s home and searched a bedroom reserved for her. They confiscated two copies of Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong), one copy of a new article written by Falun Gong’s founder, a portrait of the founder, and two copies of Minghui Weekly (a magazine about Falun Gong).
Ms. Zhang was interrogated at the Zhifang Police Station from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Before she was released that evening, she was ordered to sign the list of confiscated items.
At 4 p.m. on December 19, 2025, five officers from the Miaoshan Police Station raided Ms. Zhang’s rental place and confiscated one copy of Zhuan Falun, six articles written by Falun Gong’s founder, an MP3 player with Falun Gong exercise music, and a cell phone that had Falun Gong audio teachings and exercise music on it.
The police drove Ms. Zhang to the Wuhan City Detention Center. Upon arrival, Ms. Zhang was given a physical exam, and was found to have high blood pressure and high blood sugar. The detention center declined to admit her, and the police took her back to the police station.
The police later had Ms. Zhang undergo another physical exam at a local hospital. They took her to the detention center again on December 21, 2025. She was still denied admission, and the police released her on house arrest after she posted a 2,000-yuan bail bond (which was to be returned in one year).
Ms. Zhang had very little formal education and could barely read. Years of hard work at a brick and tile factory ruined her health. She suffered excruciating pain from a slipped disc and eventually became bedridden. After she took up Falun Gong, all her symptoms disappeared, and she was able to walk again.
Falun Gong also gave Ms. Zhang the strength to raise her two sons all by herself after her husband passed away. She held firm to her faith when the communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999. She was arrested multiple times, resulting in an unknown term of forced labor and later a two-year prison term.
The two-year prison sentence stemmed from her arrest on June 16, 2022, together with four other local Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Zhang and Ms. Qiu Yongzhi were each sentenced to two years. Ms. Tian Huazhen was given four years. Mr. Chen Jun and Ms. Li Chunlian were held at a psychiatric hospital and subjected to involuntary drug administration. Mr. Chen was later sentenced to seven and a half years in late 2024. Ms. Li suddenly passed away at home on November 11, 2024.
Ms. Zhang finished serving time in June 2024, only to be twice arrested in December 2025.
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