Mother of Chen Xiao

On December 19, 2020, Chinese Communist Party authorities detained two elderly women named Tan Zezhen and Xu Shanping in Guangxi for distributing information about Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice that combines meditation and moral teachings to cultivate the mind and body.

Since then, Ms. Tan’s daughter Chen Xiao, who is a citizen of Australia has been awaiting news of her 76 year old mother Tan Zezhen behind bars in China. 

While it has been reported by Minghui in 2021 that Tan is held at Beihai City No. 1 Detention Center, her daughter, Ms. Chen has not received news of Tan Zezhen from any prison authorities. Tan’s family has not received any legal documentation or been informed of her whereabouts since her 2020 arrest. It is also not known whether or not Ms. Tan has been sentenced.

Now a citizen of Australia, Chen Xiao is able to freely practice Falun Gong. However, while back in China, Chen Xiao was arrested multiple times and sent to forced labor camps and brainwashing centers. Ms. Chen and her husband have both been subject to persecution by the CCP, and as a result have had a difficult family life, and their child often grew up separated from his parents.

While Chen Xiao was still in detention, her mother was taken to a forced labor camp for a one-year term. For refusing to give up her belief after one year, her term was extended another year. During her two years of detention, Ms. Tan endured both verbal and physical abuse, but she never gave up her faith in Falun Dafa. In the last seven months of detention, she engaged in protest of the illegal detention while in prison, and she was released.

Ever since the practice has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999, Tan’s life has been turned upside down. Chen explained that in the past 25 years of persecution, her mother’s house has been ransacked more than 20 times, during which she had personal belongings confiscated.

The torture inflicted on the elderly woman has gone on intermittently for a long time. Ms. Chen told The Epoch Times that her mother had “served two labor camp terms for a total of three years and nine months. She was also repeatedly held in brainwashing centers, suffering all kinds of physical torture and mental pressure.”

Ms. Chen’s father, now 80 years old, is struggling without his wife and remains deeply worried about her safety.

When asked about the impact that Falun Gong had on her mother, Chen explained that since practicing Falun Gong, her mother’s health improved dramatically and she was “vibrant and full of life.” She also expressed the sentiment that her whole family has benefitted from applying the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance into their everyday lives.

Ms. Chen is deeply worried about the status of her mother and is fearful that Ms. Tan may be met with similar fate as the other woman she was imprisoned with. Ms. Xu Shanping, who was arrested together with Ms. Tan, passed away on July 6, 2024, just two days after she was released from prison. She had been severely emaciated by torture and mistreatment in prison and developed a serious medical condition while serving her time.