Tianjin Falun Gong Practitioner Sentenced to Second Prison Term

Sun Shuhua, a 58-year-old Falun Gong practitioner from Fuzhuangzi Village, Houjiaying Township, Ji County, Tianjin, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison by local officials on July 19, 2024, and extorted a fine of 10,000 yuan (approx. 1410 USD). 

Back in 2009, Sun Shuhua was illegally sentenced to one year of forced labor, and suffered persecution in the Tianjin Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Sun was arrested on April 13, 2009 and subject to one year and two months of forced labor. She was brutally tortured and forced to do unpaid labor at the Tianjin Women’s Forced Labor Camp (see the related report for details). Every time her husband went to visit her, the labor camp guards ordered him to bring the couple’s two young children in an attempt to pressure her to renounce her faith. During the long trip, her children suffered car sickness and cried non-stop after seeing their mother behind bars. This caused her husband to resent her for her practice of Falun Gong, but despite this, she held firm to her faith. Her term was extended by two days due to her unwavering belief in her practice and she was released on June 15, 2010.

Sun Shuhua was born on November 20, 1966, and began practicing Falun Dafa at the end of 1998. Shortly after starting to practice, her long-term incurable eye diseases, heart heat, gynecological diseases, cervical spondylosis, back pain and other stubborn diseases disappeared. 

After the CCP began its persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Sun Shuhua was harassed, kidnapped, illegally detained, and sent to labor camps. She was brutally tortured mentally and physically in a labor camp. 

Ms. Sun’s parents were also affected. After her older sister was sentenced to four years for practicing Falun Gong, her father became so distraught that he died in 2012. Her mother had a mental breakdown and passed away shortly afterwards.

The following is Sun Shuhua’s account of her experience of persecution ten years ago:

I obtained the Fa at the end of 1998. After practicing, I learned the principles of being a human being. I understand that I should follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, cultivate my [character], consider others first, think of others, find my own faults in the face of conflicts, and strictly require myself to remember the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance at all times and in all places to be a good person. The magical effects of Falun Gong in curing diseases and improving health has made my eye diseases, heart heat, gynecological diseases, cervical spondylosis, and back pain disappear without a trace. I have recovered without realizing it. I live a relaxed and happy life every day, and my family is very harmonious.

Since July 1999, I have been brutally persecuted by Jiang Zemin and his accomplices because I have persisted in my beliefs.

On April 13, 2009, I was kidnapped by the police from the Sangzi Police Station at the Sangzi Market. In the afternoon, the Jixian National Security Police took me to my home and illegally searched it. At 10 o’clock that evening, I was sent to the Jixian Detention Center and illegally detained for more than 40 days. During the process, the police station and the Jixian National Security Police repeatedly forced me to confess and press my fingerprints, and told me that hiring a lawyer was useless.

I have a disability and walk with crutches. When I arrived at the detention center, the police took away the crutches. I couldn’t move and sat on the plank bed every day, which caused my legs and feet to lack exercise. From the knees down, I felt cold, numb, and swollen. I had no feeling at all and couldn’t stand without support. I explained the situation to the director of the detention center, but he was afraid of taking responsibility, so he sent me a notice early the next morning that I was illegally sentenced to one year and two months of reeducation through labor. When I left the detention center, my legs could no longer walk normally.

After I arrived at the Tianjin Women’s Labor Camp, I was detained in solitary confinement in the First Brigade. The labor camp sent drug addict Yang Wenhua and two assistants to brainwash me every day, play things that slandered [Falun Gong’s founder], and force me to write the “three statements”, recite the prison rules, write ideological reports, and write monthly summaries. I still didn’t write the “three statements” after more than four months of persecution. The team leader called the prisoner who was assigned to monitor me and said: “Work hard, and you can get a reduced sentence if you do well.” In this way, the prisoner who was assigned to monitor me, the assistants, and the team leader Wei Hui, they all joined forces to put pressure on me. Yang Wenhua threatened me that there were two extremes, one was to make me stand as long as I wanted, and the other was to make me sit as long as I wanted. From five o’clock every day, I was forced to stand at a right angle facing the wall until breakfast, and I was given three minutes to eat breakfast, then stand until lunch, which took three minutes to finish, then stand until dinner, which also took three minutes, then stand until all the people in the class and cell finished taking a shower, and I was given 20 minutes to take a shower, and after taking a shower, I stood until midnight before I was allowed to go back to the class to sleep. I was forced to stand like this for more than a month, and then I was tortured into standing in various ways: my forehead against the wall, my nose against the wall, my belly against the wall, and my toes against the wall, for seventeen or eighteen hours a day. This continued for a while, and then I was forced to sit, with three legs on a stool, my waist straight, my legs straight, my hands on my knees, the stool legs straight, my eyes wide open looking straight ahead, I was not allowed to lower my head, close my eyes, talk to anyone, or look at anyone, and if I violated the rules, they would hit me on the head with their hands. I was forced to sit like this for seventeen or eighteen hours a day, sometimes without water, sometimes with very little food. Because I didn’t cooperate with what they wanted, they didn’t let me go to the toilet.

All Falun Gong practitioners who refused to “transform” were strictly controlled and persecuted. The prison guards personally beat the practitioners. In the middle of winter, they had the guards drag the practitioners outside to freeze for several hours. Some Falun Gong practitioners were also brutally force-fed.

The team leader also used family affection to force me to “convert”. Every time my family came to visit, the team leader forced my husband to bring his young daughter and son. Both children cried and got carsick and vomited, causing my husband to vent his dissatisfaction on me.

The labor camp also forced me to work: stringing flowers, pasting jewelry boxes. I was not allowed to go shopping. I was locked up in a small cell every day and under strict supervision. Every day was like a year.

From April 13, 2009, when I was kidnapped, to June 15, 2010, when my illegal re-education through labor ended, a full year and two months passed. The labor camp even illegally detained me for two more days.

After I returned home, my husband asked for a divorce several times. My sister was also illegally sentenced to four years in prison by the CCP for practicing Falun Gong. My elderly parents could not bear the persecution of their two daughters. My father passed away in 2012, and my mother became mentally ill and passed away soon after.

About a year after I returned home, one day, seven or eight people from Tianjin’s “610 Office,” Sangzi Police Station, and Houjiaying Police Station broke into my home and illegally searched it. A female police officer asked me if I wrote articles for Minghui. The police from Sangzi Police Station searched the two rooms for something, saying that there was a computer. They also forced me to write a guarantee that I would not practice Falun Gong, or they would take me away. Their actions frightened my father-in-law so much that he sat on the ground and couldn’t get up. My mother-in-law was so scared that she trembled all over, crying and unable to speak. The female police officer also said that if she saw my name on Minghui again, she would come to find me. The next day, two police officers from Houjiaying Police Station came to harass me again. Not long after, two men and one woman from Houjiaying Township Government came to harass me again.

In 2014, four police officers came to harass us again. They didn’t show any identification and didn’t say which unit they were from. They searched both rooms. My mother-in-law was so scared that she was shaking all over, her face flushed and she couldn’t speak.

Our whole family, young and old, lived in fear every day. Sometimes we didn’t even dare to open the door, not knowing when someone would come to harass us again. We lived in panic.