(Minghui.org) A grandfather in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, was forced to take hypertension medication while serving a 7.5-year term because he practices Falun Gong. He became extremely weak afterwards and refused to take any more pills. He is being held in a police hospital and denied parole.
Mr. Chen Shigui’s granddaughter, a boarding school student, was expelled from school on September 18, 2025, after she told her roommates about her grandfather’s ordeal.
Grandfather Drugged and in Serious Condition, Denied Parole
Mr. Chen was arrested on July 10, 2019 and was sentenced to seven and a half years on December 28, 2020. After his appeal was denied in May 2021, he was sent to Jiazhou Prison. He called his family regularly once a month until early August 2025.
Mr. Chen finally called on August 24, 2025 and he told his family what had happened to him. He said the prison doctor measured his systolic blood pressure at 180 mmHg (normal is 120 or lower) and urged him to take hypertension medication or he’d risk having a brain bleed. He believed the doctor and started taking pills. The medication, however, made him feel extremely weak. His head buzzed and felt heavy. He also had intermittent memory loss and couldn’t recall the names of people he knew.
Mr. Chen said he was afraid he might not survive his prison term.
Bai Yang, head of the prison administration section, called Mr. Chen’s family the next day to say that he'd instructed the prison doctor to take Mr. Chen’s blood pressure several times after listening to a recording of his latest call with his family. Bai said that Mr. Chen’s blood pressure remained persistently high but he'd stopped taking the pills. They planned to take him to the Sichuan Provincial Judicial Police General Hospital the following morning.
Mr. Chen’s family was notified the next day to go see him at the police hospital on August 28. During the visit, he offered more details of his ordeal and expressed doubt about the accuracy of the blood pressure device used in the prison. He said that it always showed abnormal readings. After he took the pills for a week or two, he heard loud sounds in his head and it was unbearable. His head felt very heavy and his neck was so stiff that he couldn’t turn his head. He felt as if all his organs were failing and he refused to take any more pills. The prison doctor went into a rage and instructed the guards to make him swallow the pills. He firmly refused.
Mr. Chen also said that most of his teeth had become rotten and loose, with only two usable, making it extremely difficult to chew food. The prison food was very poor and lacked nutrition. Despite this, he was still forced to do slave labor and was only allowed two days of rest.
Mr. Chen asked his family to consult a lawyer and get him out of the prison. His daughter and granddaughter went to the prison on August 29 to ask that he be released on medical parole. Bai said that Mr. Chen did not sign all four statements required of Falun Gong practitioners to renounce and denounce their faith. Additionally, the hospital had not issued a critical condition notice, so Mr. Chen was not eligible for parole.
Granddaughter Expelled from School
Mr. Chen’s granddaughter, Ms. Hou Tianran, is a boarding student at Chengdu Railway Health School (a vocational high school). When her roommates asked why she seemed so sad, she told them about her grandfather’s imprisonment. She also recounted how he was arrested in front of her years ago, when she was only ten years old.
One of the roommates repeated Ms. Hou’s story to their homeroom teacher, Chen Zhujiao (no relation to Mr. Chen). She summoned Ms. Hou to her office and pretended to be interested in learning more about Falun Gong. She asked if Ms. Hou had any Falun Gong books and the teen sent her an electronic version of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, along with some pictures of her grandfather in prison.
Two days later, Feng Boyang, vice dean of students, summoned Ms. Hou to his office, and ordered her to “voluntarily drop out of school.” He then instructed Chen and three other teachers to escort her home on September 18, 2025.
Ms. Hou’s mother mailed a letter to the school and told them it was illegal to expel her daughter for her grandfather’s faith, which has never been criminalized in China. The school leaders talked to the mother and had teacher Chen notify Ms. Hou that she had to report to the Sandaoyan Police Station to have her case registered before she would be allowed to return to school.
Ms. Hou’s mother did not take her to the police station and instead brought her to the school entrance. Teacher Chen then took them to the police station against their will. Instructor Huang Deshou insisted that Ms. Hou “drop out of school.” Deputy chief Pan Jicheng accused the mother and daughter of not showing gratitude to the Chinese Communist Party that “gave them everything.”
Teacher Chen shamed Ms. Hou’s mother for being jobless and the latter responded that she was a full-time caregiver of her own mother, who required dialysis three times a week.
Pan ordered Ms. Hou’s mother to take her home to wait for a notice regarding whether and when she’d be allowed to return to school. She learned later that teacher Chen also took her four roommates to the police station to be deposed.
Related Reports:
Three Sichuan Residents' Appeals Against Wrongful Sentences Rejected
Four Sichuan Residents Sentenced to Lengthy Terms for Their Faith
Copyright © 1999-2025 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
