(Minghui.org) A woman in Fenxi County, Shanxi Province, is facing indictment for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999.
Ms. Wang Xiumin, around 55, was arrested on August 19, 2026, while in Taiyuan (capital city of Shanxi) seeking the release of another Falun Gong practitioner. The arresting officers from the Xinghualing District Police Department placed Ms. Wang in the Taiyuan City Fourth Women’s Detention Center. They submitted her case to a local procuratorate in mid-September 2026.
Ms. Wang’s mother, Ms. Li Hai’e, was devastated by her daughter’s arrest and died on October 14, 2026. Ms. Li, around 80, is predeceased by her husband, Mr. Wang Haiyou, who died in 2011. The couple had been repeatedly persecuted for practicing Falun Gong over the years.
Ms. Wang developed various health problems when she was about 17 years old. She experienced frequent headaches and abdominal pain. Severe sinusitis made her breathing difficult. Her skin and the whites of her eyes turned yellow because of jaundice. She lost her appetite and struggled with constipation. She was so weak that it took every ounce of her strength just to speak.
Ms. Wang’s parents could not afford medical treatment for their daughter. The couple took up Falun Gong in 1994 and soon became healthy themselves. Ms. Wang and her older sister also started practicing Falun Gong and enjoyed good health also.
After the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, the family held firm to their faith and was repeatedly targeted by the authorities.
Ms. Wang was arrested multiple times and sentenced to three years following an arrest in 2003. While serving time at the Shanxi Province Women’s Prison, she was force-fed, forced to do hard labor, and stripped naked for brutal beatings. The guards also shaved her head and smeared feces on her body. She was later held in solitary confinement and drugged.
The drugging and other torture severely damaged Ms. Wang’s health. She’d suddenly lose her memory, her heart would pound, her vision became blurred, and she felt that her limbs were out of commission. Eating was difficult because her teeth had become loose.
After she was released from prison, Ms. Wang was shocked to see a different person in the mirror: her teeth were all black and her face was bluish. Over the next ten years, she experienced numbness and localized pain in her back; she suffered from severe vaginal bleeding; and her limbs were always cold and had cramps all the time.
Ms. Wang, a horticulturist at the Fenxi County Agricultural Commission, had her pay stopped and her job suspended after she was released. No other employer dared to hire her. One company told her that they didn’t want to bring themselves trouble by hiring a Falun Gong practitioner, due to the CCP’s policy of implication.
Ms. Wang’s husband and landlords were harassed because of her faith. She eventually divorced her husband and was given custody of their child. She submitted a request to the Fenxi County Agricultural Commission in January 2008, seeking job reinstatement and issuance of back pay. The Fenxi County 610 Office issued a notice to keep her under close surveillance and not issue her an ID.
Without an ID, Ms. Wang struggled to find jobs or even check into a hotel or purchase train tickets (which in China requires IDs).
Three plainclothes officers broke into her mother’s home in September 2002 and questioned her as to whether she knew where her daughter was. Ms. Li became alarmed and pushed them outside her home. They tore down the window decorations reading “Falun Dafa is good.”
One officer and two community workers showed up at Ms. Wang’s home on December 3, 2025, claiming to be checking household registration. They photographed her against her will. That same day, her mother was also harassed at home.
Ms. Wang was arrested again on August 19, 2026. Four other Falun Gong practitioners and 11 family members of the practitioners were also seized that same day. The family members were released within one day, but the five practitioners were also put in the Taiyuan City Fourth Women’s Detention Center. Ms. Wang is facing indictment. The case status of the other practitioners—Ms. Wang Hongmei, Ms. Wang Yumei, Ms. Yan Jianqing, and Ms. Zhang Xuelian—is currently unknown.
Ms. Wang’s mother, Ms. Li Hai’e was arrested by the Fenxi County Police Department officers numerous times during the first several years of the persecution. She was given one year of forced labor around 2002 and had her term extended by six months because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. After she was released, Ms. Li faced constant harassments from the police.
Ms. Li’s older daughter was also arrested multiple times from 1999 to 2005. She was given two forced labor terms for a total of four years.
Ms. Wang’s father Mr. Wang Haiyou faced frequent arrests from 1999 to 2003. The police once shaved Mr. Wang’s head, handcuffed him, and paraded him through the streets to humiliate him. He was later sentenced to three and a half years.
After Mr. Wang was released, he had to shut down their family-owned mill because it had suffered significant financial loss during his imprisonment. He struggled to make a living, and died in 2011.
His son, who does not practice Falun Gong, was denied promotion at work because of his parents’ and sisters’ practice of Falun Gong.