Persecution of the Elderly: When a Ruling Party Decides to Target Senior Citizens for Their Faith

A re-enactment of torture on Falun Gong practitioners during a demonstration in Taipei, Taiwan, on July 20, 2014. Mandy Cheng/AFP via Getty Images

While in some cultures people respect and revere their elders, there are also regions where authorities don’t hesitate to humiliate, harass, or even kill them for their faith or their differing ideologies.

Modern-day China—under the iron-fisted rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—is one such closed society where citizens struggle to practice their faith if it isn’t recognized by the regime. Such religious suppression has been going on under the officially atheist CCP since it came into power some 100 years ago.

This report highlights a few such atrocities where elderly Christians and Falun Gong adherents were harassed or even persecuted to death.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade in Washington, D.C., to mark the 24th anniversary of the persecution of the spiritual discipline in China by the Chinese Communist Party on July 20, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Bishop Frequently Jailed Before Key Holidays

Sixty-one-year-old Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin isn’t recognized by the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association because he has persistently refused to join the CCP-controlled body. Therefore, he is “routinely jailed by local authorities to prevent him from carrying out his ministry serving the vibrant local Catholic community,” reported AsiaNews.

He is one of the key targets during major Christian holidays like Easter and Christmas and is frequently arrested around these days.

On Jan. 2, the security forces in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, took Bishop Shao into custody.

“He was ordered to bring clothes for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. This suggests that his situation is not promising and that he will probably be held for a long time,” a source told AsiaNews.

His well-wishers are worried, the source added, “because they don’t even know where he will be detained.”

A file photo of a catholic church in Wenzhou, China, on Feb. 13, 2016. Jiang Tianmu/Shutterstock

84-Year-Old Woman’s Age Officially Lowered Before Being Sentenced

The presiding judge of a county court in Sichuan Province sentenced Cai Zefang, then 84, to one and a half years in February 2022 after officially lowering her age to 75.

Ms. Cai was sentenced for talking to people about how the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa)—a self-cultivation system based on the universal moral values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance and which is being freely practiced by over 100 million people in over 80 countries.

When Ms. Cai asked the judge why her age was being fabricated, the judge remarked that “75 was 80,” reported Minghui.org, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that reports on the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Just like Ms. Cai, many Falun Gong adherents inside and outside China volunteer to distribute informational brochures and fliers to expose the CCP’s hate-inciting propaganda and to inform the general public about the gravity of the persecution, which has been ongoing since 1999. In China, adherents risk their lives while handing out such materials because they often get arrested and persecuted for raising awareness.

Adherents practicing the second meditative exercise of Falun Gong in Northeast China in 1998, before the nationwide persecution started. Courtesy of Minghui.org

A man reads a flier as Falun Dafa practitioners celebrate World Falun Dafa Day in New York City on May 7, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

READ MORE

• CCP’s Persecution of Christians: Arresting Believers, Demolishing Churches, Rewriting the Bible
• Christians and Falun Gong Adherents Get Jail Terms for Posting Religious Messages Online

82-Year-Old Man Sentenced to 10 Years

Li Dengchen, an octogenarian retired teacher from Shenzhou City, Hebei Province, is currently incarcerated in Baoding Prison. He was 82 years old when he was sentenced to 10 years in January 2021 for practicing Falun Gong.

Mr. Li was first arrested at home in October 2018. According to a report, the police officers also ransacked his home and confiscated items worth 150,000 yuan ($21,000). However, the detention facility refused to take him in due to his high blood pressure, and he was released.

He was arrested again a month later and was admitted to the intensive care unit after he developed a critical medical condition in his lungs while detained at Shenzhou City Detention Center. When he was released on bail in April 2019, he'd become emaciated and unable to take care of himself. In January 2021, he was arrested again for his faith and given a 10-year sentence.

Christian Tortured for 24 Hours

In another case, undercover police officers picked up an elderly Christian and tortured him for 24 hours before releasing him.

ChinaAid reported that the “tortured believer,” whom the Xi’an Church of Abundance referred to as Brother Wang, was summoned “to fabricate charges against arrested pastors” of the church. However, the man didn’t give in to the physical assault and “never betrayed the church’s pastors.”

On the morning of March 1, 2023, the officers of the Chanba Bureau of Public Security took Mr. Wang to a hotel in a “non-police vehicle,” tied his hands and feet to a chair, and began threatening him, the report said. He was left tied to the chair for the next 24 hours, without food or water, and was interrogated. He was released the next day.

Paralyzed Woman Sentenced While Hospitalized

On Sep. 17, 2020, Chen Guifen of Chongqing was sentenced to one and a half years while she was still hospitalized, according to a Minghui report.

Ms. Chen, then 80, suffered a stroke and became paralyzed on one side of her body after she was arrested. The police said that a surveillance camera captured her distributing Falun Gong informational materials—the so-called “evidence” routinely used by Chinese officials for arresting Falun Gong adherents. When pressing charges against Ms. Chen, the police subtracted five years from her age.

Falun Gong adherents take part in a candlelight vigil in memory of Falun Gong practitioners who passed away due to the Chinese Communist Party’s 24 years of persecution, at the National Mall in Washington on July 20, 2023. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Verdict Given in 2020, Jailed in 2023

Yu Huili, 85, from Qingdao City, Shandong Province, was incarcerated on July 28, 2023, after she was given a three-year term in 2020 for writing letters in 2010—almost 10 years prior—to expose the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong.

Ironically, after the verdict, the police dropped Ms. Yu back home and did not bother her for the next three years. Then, on July 17, 2023, the Jinhu Road Police Station required Ms. Yu to undergo a medical examination; the results showed her systolic blood pressure was 200 (normal is 120). However, the police claimed that she was still fit for detention and arrested her on July 28, reported Minghui.org.

Healthy 82-Year-Old Died Hours After Arrest

Guo Zhenxiang of Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province, was arrested at a bus station in January 2019 also for distributing Falun Gong informational materials.

Hours later, her family was summoned to the police station and informed that she'd died. The family was told that Ms. Guo became ill after the arrest and died in the hospital despite attempts to resuscitate her. Without consent from the family, the police sent her body to the city funeral home, Minghui.org reported.

Ms. Guo’s family suspected that she had been mistreated while in police custody as she'd been healthy for the past few years and “did not exhibit any symptoms” before leaving home that day. Later on, the police threatened the family, warned them to not disclose Ms. Guo’s death, and monitored them.