CCP Imprisons Over 47 People for Their Belief One Month Before National Congress: Report

Falun Gong practitioners attend a parade in Brooklyn, New York City, on Oct. 2, 2022, to call an end to the Chinese regime's persecution. Zhang Jingchu/The Epoch Times

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has continued to persecute Falun Gong practitioners nationwide in the months before the CCP’s 20th national congress.

At least 47 Falun Gong practitioners in China were imprisoned for their belief in September 2022, and nearly 2,000 were arrested or threatened, and their homes were raided by local police in July and August, according to Minghui.org, a U.S.-based online platform that records and reports the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Among these Falun Gong practitioners, 17 are over 60 years old. This is a recent nationwide persecution campaign by the CCP targeting Falun Gong practitioners, Minghui reported.

According to Minghui.org, provincial political and legal affairs committees in many Chinese provinces ordered local police, security personnel of some companies, and cadres of villages to conduct the massive persecution targeting Falun Gong practitioners. Those who participated in the persecution told Falun Gong practitioners that the reason for their suppression was the CCP’s 20th national congress was to convene in mid-October.

The eldest Falun Gong practitioner imprisoned is 84-year-old Li Fengqin from Huadian City in China’s northeastern Jilin Province. She is forced to serve the sentence outside the prison under surveillance.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that consists of five meditation exercises and moral teachings based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The belief has been brutally persecuted by the CCP since 1999 due to its popularity.

The former CCP leader Jiang Zemin had an extra-legal organization—the 610 Office—established across the country to suppress Falun Gong practitioners in 1999. The CCP uses various persecution means to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their beliefs, including depriving them of their jobs, monitoring, arresting, imprisoning, and torturing them. The communist regime harvests organs from live Falun Gong practitioners, reported The Epoch Times in 2019, citing the conclusion of an independent people’s tribunal in London.

The China Tribunal's seven-person panel held one of its public hearings in London on Dec. 13, 2018. The Tribunal Chair Sir Geoffrey Nice QC (center) was the lead prosecutor in the Slobodan Milosevic trial at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Courtesy of ETAC

The persecution is still ongoing today.

Two Recent Cases of Imprisonment

Minghui has kept a record of the Falun Gong practitioners who are persecuted in China as best as it can. However, Minghui explains that its data is incomplete as it is difficult for its reporters to communicate with practitioners in China due to the CCP’s information blockade and that the actual number of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted is likely much higher than that disclosed.

The following are two Falun Gong adherents imprisoned for their belief as reported by Minghui on Oct. 5.

Zhang Hui

Zhang Hui, 47, a resident of Tieling city in China’s northeastern Liaoning Province, was illegally sentenced to imprisonment of five years on Sept. 15, 2022, and was fined 10,000 yuan (nearly $1,400) for her belief in Falun Gong. She was taking care of her parents who have disabilities before she was taken from home by police at 10 a.m. on July 13.

Zhang was previously imprisoned for her belief.

On March 15, 2007, Zhang and over a dozen Falun Gong practitioners were arrested. They were locked individually in different interrogation rooms and tortured. She suffered physical torture including deprivation of sleep, food, and water for 72 hours, being forced to stand facing a wall at all times. She was sentenced to three years imprisonment with four years of suspension and fined 60,000 yuan ($13,300). But the police didn’t give her any receipt for the fine.

In December 2001, she was detained for 12 days and fined 12,000 yuan ($1,666) for her pasting posters about the CCP’s staged self-immolation incident at Tiananmen Square in January 2001. The Epoch Times reported 54 facts (Part I, Part II, and Part III) that revealed the false fire was set up by the CCP to frame Falun Gong and fool the Chinese people.

Zhang’s employer suspended her wages and gave her only 130 yuan ($18) per month. Her husband divorced her out of fear and pressure. Zhang and her child had to rely on her parents for a living.

Falun Gong practitioners exercise in Chengdu, China's Sichuan Province before the persecution began in 1999. Courtesy of en.minghui.org

According to Minghui.org, Zhang began to practice Falun Gong in May 1998. She said that she benefitted from the moral teachings of Falun Gong based on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. She came to understand the meaning of life and knew how to be a kind person and a good employee.

Luo Liteng

Luo Liteng is a resident of Fanghe Village of Macheng City in China’s central Hubei Province. He was sentenced to four years of imprisonment in mid-September 2022. The local police informed his mother on the phone, but they didn’t tell her where he is kept.

Luo was arrested when he was taking a train at Macheng railway station in May 2021. The police checked his mobile phone and found a video clip that showed Luo and over a dozen fellow Falun Gong practitioners from his village celebrating Falun Gong founder Mr. Li Hongzhi’s birthday on May 13, 2021, at Luo’s home.

The police at the railway station immediately detained Luo and kept him in Macheng Detention Center for over a year before he was sentenced this September. The police didn’t allow his family to visit him.

Luo was sentenced to imprisonment twice before the recent sentence.

In June 2008, Luo was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment in Fanjiatai Prison in Shayang Couty, Hubei Province, where Luo suffered physical torture in the prison, including brutal beatings, cigarette burns, and forced labor.

In June 2007, Luo was detained at Macheng Detention Center for one year.

Luo and his parents all practiced Falun Gong and suffered severe persecution by the CCP.

A demonstration showing a form of torture used against Falun Gong practitioners in China Courtesy of Minghui.org

In December 2000, Luo’s father was tortured brutally by the police of Zhongyi Police Station, Macheng, for months on end. Luo’s father died due to serious injuries caused by the torture. His mother was sentenced to two years of forced labor in a prison in Shayang County.

US Lawmakers Denounce CCP’s Persecution of Falun Gong

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has recently denounced the CCP’s “unrelenting” 23-year persecution of Falun Gong.

“I unequivocally denounce China’s inhumane treatment of Falun Gong’s adherents and demand that the CCP protect their lives and their freedom,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a July statement, condemning the CCP’s “unrelenting persecution” of Falun Gong.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said in a statement: “I support the many individuals calling for freedom in China, including Falun Gong practitioners. I hear you, and I stand with you today and every day.”

Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) filed House Resolution 219 in March 2021 and is one of the co-sponsors of the Falun Gong Protection Act (H.R. 6319), House legislation that was introduced by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) in December.

“We must continue to hold China accountable for its bad behavior and take a firm stance that further misconduct will no longer be tolerated,” Bilirakis said. “America must remain a beacon of principle, courage, recognizing and promoting the basic human rights of all people.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.