(Minghui.org) Two women in Maoming City, Guangdong Province, were sentenced to four and a half years and fined 25,000 yuan because they practice Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
After their convictions were announced at the end of the sentencing hearing on December 1, 2025, Ms. Tao Yonghong, 65, and Ms. Wang Ying, 66, immediately submitted their appeals (which they prepared beforehand).
Ms. Tao Yonghong
Ms. Wang Ying
Presiding judge Tan Wei from the Maonan District Court, his assistant judges Ke Xuejun and Chen Lei, as well as prosecutor Cai Linhui from the Maonan District Procuratorate, signed the verdicts. Over the past 26 years, the same court had previously sentenced at least 55 local Falun Gong practitioners, 9 of whom were also convicted by judge Tan. Some of the confirmed names include: Mr. Zhou Huajian (9 years), Ms. Wu Youqing (6 years), Mr. Li Jun (5 years), Ms. Luo Ji (3 years), and Ms. Li Shunhua (1 year).
Ms. Wang and Ms. Tao were arrested on December 13, 2023, and indicted on April 12, 2024. They stood trial on June 25, 2025, and were convicted on December 1. See the related reports for details of their arrests, indictment, and trial.
Past Persecution
This is not the first time that Ms. Wang and Ms. Tao have been targeted for their faith.
Ms. Wang was a jade expert and an engineer at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She served two years of forced labor and three years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. Her employer fired her in May 2011 after she was released from prison. They also reduced her years of service to zero from her pension calculation, resulting in her completely losing her retirement benefits.
Ms. Tao is a retiree of Sinopec Maoming Petrochemical Company. She served three years in prison for her faith (2011-2014) and was briefly detained several times. In June 2022, the social security office ordered Ms. Tao to pay back more than 102,000 yuan in pension benefits (including about 50,000 yuan in payments issued during her three-year prison term and more than 52,000 yuan in annual benefit increases she received since her prison release). They threatened to suspend her future pension if she did not comply. It is unclear whether she paid the money as ordered.
When Ms. Tao was not incarcerated, the authorities constantly harassed her mother and her.
Related Reports:
Two Guangdong Women Stand Trial for Their Faith in Falun Gong, Judges “Defend” Prosecutor
Two Guangdong Women Face Indictment for Their Faith, Lawyer Not Given Access to Their Case Files
Two Guangdong Women in Detention for Their Faith in Falun Gong, Both Previously Jailed for 3 Years
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