Liaoning Woman Dies after Seven Years of Imprisonment and Repeated Harassment

A woman in Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, passed away on December 31, 2019, after suffering years of persecution for her faith in Falun Gong.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Fu Jinghua credited Falun Gong for giving her good health and improving her character. Her husband, Mr. Yin Guozhi, felt the same way after starting to practise it himself. The couple has been repeatedly targeted for holding firm to their faith in the past 20 years.

Ms. Fu was arrested on July 28, 2009, and sentenced three months later to seven years in Dabei Prison, where she was tortured and forced to do intensive unpaid labour.

Although Mr. Yin escaped the arrest, he was forced to go into hiding for ten years to avoid being persecuted. His mother, in her late 70s, was left alone to take care of her bedridden husband. Mr. Yin’s son grew up without his parents' care. The farmer's family had to rely on their neighbours to harvest their crops during the fall.

The police put Mr. Yin on the wanted list and offered a 50,000-yuan reward for people to report his whereabouts. He moved from place to place and couldn’t return home.

Meanwhile, the police constantly harassed the couple’s family, in attempts to find Mr. Yin. Ms. Fu’s mother passed away in deep agony in 2013. Mr. Yin’s mother died one year later after suffering from a heart condition and high blood pressure.

When Ms. Fu was released in 2015, she was devastated to find that her household registration record had been cancelled and that she had been stripped of medical and retirement benefits. She struggled to care for her son and father-in-law.

Ms. Fu was arrested again on December 13, 2018, and held at Chaoyang City Detention Center for 15 days. Her arrest dealt a heavy blow to her father-in-law, who had been living in tremendous fear and pressure, worrying about the safety of the couple. He became incapacitated and passed away soon after Ms. Fu was released.

The police harassed Ms. Fu twice more before July 2019 and threatened to sentence her to 16 years for upholding her faith. Fearing further persecution, Ms. Fu lived away from home.

After spending ten years on the run, Mr. Yin was arrested on September 26, 2019. He was held at Jianping County Detention Center and brutally beaten by officers.

Ms. Fu returned home following Mr. Yin’s arrest, only to be harassed by the police again. Unable to live a normal life due to the harassment, she left home and lived by herself again.

Years of incarceration and physical torture, as well as the constant mental stress of worrying about her husband and son, took a toll on Ms. Fu’s health. She fell ill shortly after leaving home. She passed away in her rental apartment on December 31, 2019, at the age of 53.