Shanghai Resident Dies on Christmas Eve, Imprisoned for Bills Printed with Falun Gong Information

A resident of Shanghai and a former textile factory worker, Ms. Jiang Linying died in a detention center on December 24, 2022. She was 69 years of age. She had been detained with a four-year term for practicing Falun Gong. The Chinese communist regime has been persecuting adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual discipline, also known as Falun Dafa, since 1999.

In the afternoon of December 24, 2022, Ms. Jiang’s husband received a call from the Baoshan District Detention Center. He was told that his wife was in critical condition and was taken to the hospital. When he asked about her condition and the hospital where she had been taken to, the caller refused to give an answer, saying it was confidential, and denied his request to visit his wife.

Hours later, another guard called from a cellphone (+86-18100051158) and said Ms. Jiang was having difficulty breathing and that the doctor had issued a critical condition notice for her. The guard continued to deny the family their visitation rights and said that informing them on her condition was enough. The family was outraged and demanded to see her to no avail. 

At 10:29 p.m., the same guard called from the same cellphone number and told the family that Ms. Jiang had died. It has not been confirmed if the family had been allowed to see her after her death.

Prior Detentions and Torture

Ms. Jiang, a retired textile factory worker, started practicing Falun Gong in February 1999. Five months later when the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong, she was imprisoned twice, with sentences of 3.5 years and 5 years, and detained in a forced labor camp for 15 months.

While in prison, Ms. Jiang was tortured via methods such as: forced drug injections that destroy the central nervous system, brutal physical beatings, forced standing or sitting on a small stool for extended periods of time, denied use of the toilet, food deprivation, and forced to overeat.

On October 25, 2018, a group of officers went to Ms. Jiang’s home to warn her not to leave home during the China International Import Expo in Shanghai to be held from November 5 through 10, 2018. They threatened to detain her if she would go out and talk to people about Falun Gong. They told her, “If you want to take care of your old mother, stay home! If you don’t listen to us, be prepared to go to prison!” 

On February 3, 2021, the police harassed Ms. Jiang at home and ordered her to sign statements renouncing Falun Gong. When she refused, they arrested her and ransacked her home, confiscating her Falun Gong books and computer. The police also seized 274 pieces of paper currency worth 2,900 yuan in total, which were printed with information about Falun Gong as a way to circumvent censorship. Ms. Jiang’s mother was very distraught by the persecution and died shortly after.

Ms. Jiang was held at the Baoshan Detention Center. Meanwhile, the police went to shops near her home where they questioned the vendors as to whether Ms. Jiang had used the currency with information about Falun Gong written on it. Four witnesses testified against her, claiming that she used the marked currency to purchase vegetables between late January and early February 2021. 

Ms. Jiang’s was arrested on March 9 that year. A couple of weeks later, on March 26 she had an asthma attack and suffered persistent fever and cough. The detention center guards didn’t take her to see a doctor until April 2, when the doctor found that she had pneumonia.

The police submitted Ms. Jiang’s case to the Baoshan District Procuratorate in early May 2021. Worried about her health, her family demanded her release, to no avail. After over a year of being detained, Ms. Jiang was sentenced to four years by the Jing’an District Court on September 8, 2022. She appealed, but the local intermediate court ruled to maintain the original verdict. Three months and two weeks later on December 24, 2022, she died in custody.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

• Baoshan District Detention Center: +86-21-28959537
• Detention Center guard who informed the family of Ms. Jiang’s passing: +86-18100051158
• Tang Min (唐敏), head of Baoshan District Detention Center: +86-21-28959530