Cancer-Stricken Elderly Chinese Woman Sentenced Again for Her Faith, Denied Medical Parole

Reenactment of one of the many torture methods used by the Chinese Communist Party to persecute Falun Gong practitioners in China. Minghui.org

A persecuted Chinese woman arrested again for her faith was denied medical parole after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The police told her family that she doesn’t meet the criteria for parole.

Jiang Shumei, 67, from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, was at her home with Xu Zhenying, 76, on Feb. 26, 2021, when the police broke in. Both women were reading the teachings of Falun Gong, an ancient self-cultivation spiritual system rooted in the Chinese tradition. The police ransacked the place, took away the spiritual books, printer, and computer—and arrested them both.

A large group of Falun Gong adherents practice the exercises in Shenyang City, China, before the Chinese Communist Party began persecuting the spiritual system. Minghui.org

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditative practice based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Fearing the immense popularity of the practice, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a campaign of persecution on July 20, 1999. Since then, countless Falun Gong adherents have been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured to death.

The police detained Jiang and Xu at Shenyang City Detention Center without informing their families. Jiang was diagnosed with breast cancer during a physical exam at the detention center. Three months later, in May 2021, Xu was sentenced to two years; Jiang was sentenced to five years in September 2021.

A year after the sentence and her cancer diagnosis, in October 2022, Jiang was transferred to Liaoning No. 2 Women’s Prison. The prison accepted her this time after having rejected her admission previously. Jiang’s family applied for medical parole, but the authorities declined the application, claiming she didn’t qualify.

Jiang has previously been detained for a total of nine years, according to another report by Minghui.org.

In 2000, she was arrested and detained for a year at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp—the infamous Chinese camp featured in the award-winning documentary “Letter From Masanjia” which exposed the brutalities and human rights abuses taking place inside its dark cells.

In 2004, Jiang was arrested and then beaten and shocked with electric batons while in police custody. She was injured so severely by the torture that she was unable to walk. Later, after a month at the Zhangshi Brainwashing Center, she was sentenced to a further eight years at the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison. In the prison, Jiang was constantly beaten and verbally abused while being forced to perform unpaid labor for many hours every day.

An illustration of a forced labor camp in China. Minghui.org

Xu has also been arrested in the past. In February 2020, her home was ransacked and she was taken into custody. The police also arrested her husband, who is not a Falun Gong practitioner, and their two children. Her husband was released later. Xu and her children remained under house arrest for six months after the detention center refused to accept them due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xu was summoned to the court in August 2020, but she went into hiding to avoid being sentenced. She was arrested again in February 2021 while at Jiang’s home.