Reported in November 2022: Private School Teachers and 23 Others Sentenced
Twenty-six cases of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced for their faith were reported in November 2022. Except one case that took place in 2021, the remaining 25 cases happened in 2022, including three in June, one in August, three in September, seven in October, and eleven in November.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Since then, countless practitioners have been arrested, detained, sentenced, and tortured for upholding their faith. But due to strict information censorship in China, the incidents can’t always be reported in a timely manner, nor is all the information readily available.
Guangdong Teachers Sentenced
Three teachers from Huizhou City, Guangdong Province were sentenced on October 27, 2022, for starting a private school. Mr. Zhao Tianhua was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined 500,000 yuan. Mr. Chen Hualiang and Mr. Lian Yueguang were each given four years with a 20,000-yuan fine.
Mr. Zhao, 51, has a bachelor’s degree in computer and information management. In July 2017, he started a private school called Intelligent Spring Private School, which offered curriculum on subjects including mathematics, traditional culture and history, Mandarin Chinese, and English. Previously, he worked as a bank accountant in Nanhai City until 2002, when he was sentenced to Sanshui Forced Labor Camp for three years.
Mr. Chen, 65, is a teacher alongside Mr. Zhao. He previously taught at Guizhou Business School. He was fired for upholding his faith and sentenced to a three-year prison term in October 2004.
Mr. Lian, 56, is also a teacher at was an elementary school teacher. He was also fired from his position for upholding his faith and sentenced to five years in Yangjiang Prison on July 20, 2007.
Private School Targeted
The police broke into Mr. Zhao’s home-based private school through his neighbor’s place on May 11, 2021. Mr. Zhao, his wife, Ms. Cai Huibin, as well as four other practitioners who taught at the school, including Mr. Chen, Mr. Lian, Ms. Wang Lifei, and Mr. Peng Jian, were all arrested.
Ms. Cai, Ms. Wang, and Mr. Peng were released after 37 days of detention, while the other three practitioners remained in custody.
The police initially charged the practitioners with engaging in “illegal business.” After failing to find enough evidence to support this charge, officers changed the charge to Article 300, a loosely-defined clause and the default loophole used to illegally criminalize Falun Gong practitioners. The prosecution’s alleged evidence included confiscated books on Falun Gong.
During several months of detention, Mr. Zhao developed a severe heart condition and was hospitalized. His family applied three times to have him released on bail for medical treatment, but their requests were repeatedly denied by the police station, even after detention center guards recommended releasing him from custody.
Mr. Zhao, Mr. Lian, and Mr. Peng appeared in front of Boluo County Court on October 28, 2021, and their lawyers entered not guilty pleas for them. Judge Hu Jinhui didn’t allow the lawyers to elaborate on the fact that no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong or labeled it as a cult in China.
Demographics
The sentenced practitioners came from 12 provinces and municipalities. Guangdong had the most, at six cases, followed by five cases each in Liaoning and Shandong, and two cases in Heilongjiang. The other eight regions each had one case.
The prison terms ranged from eight months to 15 years, with an average of 3.6 years. One practitioner was sentenced to seven years and also fined a half million yuan.
Among the 16 practitioners whose ages were known at the time of the sentencing, their ages ranged between 47 and 77, with six practitioners in their 60s and three in their 70s. In addition to private school teachers, other targeted professionals include a college professor, an electrical engineer, and a retired senior information engineer.
The persecution also brought devastating impacts to the practitioners’ families. One practitioner’s sentencing came only one month after her daughter succumbed to the mental pressure from the persecution and passed away. Among the sentenced practitioners were also two grandmothers who stayed at their respective children’s homes to help care for their grandchildren. One practitioner lost her husband following her latest arrest, and another practitioner’s husband with mental illness is now left at home to fend for himself while she is in prison.
The full list of sentenced practitioners can be downloaded here (PDF).
Based on an original Minghui.org article.
