(Minghui.org) A man in Suining City, Sichuan Province is in criminal detention for his faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Mr. Zheng Deliang returned home at 10 a.m. on January 6, 2026, to see his fence gate open and seven plainclothes officers waiting outside for him. His wife was visiting their son out of town, and no one else was home. The police ordered him to go inside, but he refused to comply. They then went inside his home and confiscated his Falun Gong informational materials and the music player he used to do the Falun Gong exercises.
The police handcuffed Mr. Zheng and drove him away. His wife received a call from the number +86-19183050068 on January 9, 2026. The caller said that he was from the Jiefuqiao Police Station, and that they had put her husband in criminal detention at the Suining City Detention Center. She later received a detention notice issued by the Chuanshan District Police Department, which oversees the police station. The notice was dated January 6. It is unclear whether the police issued the notice before arresting Mr. Zheng. By law, such a notice can only be issued after a suspect has been apprehended.
This is not the first time that Mr. Zheng has been targeted for his faith. He and his father, Mr. Zheng Shiyi, also a Falun Gong practitioner, were previously arrested on February 3, 2015, and wrongly convicted in November of that year. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and his father three and a half years.
The father and son were admitted to the Jiazhou Prison in May 2016. Mr. Zheng Shiyi was brutally tortured and forced to take medications to treat “his high blood pressure,” even though he did not have hypertension symptoms. By the time he was released in March 2018, his health had been severely damaged. He couldn’t straighten his back or lift his head. He also suffered severe memory loss, likely due to the medications. His conditions kept worsening in his final years. His intelligence was later reduced to be lower than that of a toddler, and he eventually became completely incapacitated.
Despite his condition, the local police still harassed Mr. Zheng Shiyi at home numerous times. They forcibly drew his blood and photographed him. He died on February 22, 2025, at the age of 87.
Mr. Zheng Deliang was also tortured during his prison term. Upon his admission, the prison arranged two inmates to monitor him around the clock. He was later moved to the Fifth Division to do hard labor. He refused to wear inmates’ badge. Whenever he was ordered to sign something, he always wrote, “Zheng Deliang is a good person.”
Mr. Zheng also stood up for other jailed practitioners when he saw them being abused by the guards or inmates. Once a guard hit practitioner Mr. Qi Taiquan with his walkie-talkie, resulting in a large lump on Mr. Qi’s head. Mr. Zheng and Mr. Qi together filed a complaint with the prison’s discipline inspection division, but received no response. Not long after, Zhang Jian, head of the Fifth Division, twice asked practitioner Mr. Chen Ming to pass the message to Mr. Zheng, that he’d teach him a lesson soon.
Zhang moved Mr. Zheng to a different cell to be “fixed” by inmate Wang Dong, a large man who stood at 5’11’’. As soon as Mr. Zheng mentioned Falun Gong, Wang would pick him up and drag him outside. Once Mr. Zheng read Falun Gong teachings written on a paper slip and Wang tried to snatch it away. When that failed, Wang punched Mr. Zheng hard on the spine and arms.
Mr. Zheng noted that practitioner Mr. Luo Xuefang was often made to walk barefoot so he gave him a pair of socks. An inmate saw it and reported it to guard Wang Huaijun. Wang hurled abusive language at Mr. Zheng. The following night Mr. Zheng studied Falun Gong teachings, and inmate Wang Dong punched him aggressively. He pressed the emergency button for help, and Wang hit him hard on the ears, causing excruciating pain.
Mr. Zheng detailed inmate Wang’s beatings in a complaint letter and dropped it off in the complaint box the next day. The prison then swapped Mr. Zheng and Mr. Luo’s cell arrangements. Mr. Luo faced further abuse in Mr. Zheng’s old cell and died in the prison in early April 2020, at the age of 67.
Division head Zhang ignored the repeated complaints filed by Mr. Zheng regarding the torture of him and other jailed practitioners. Zhang even bragged, “I am the law! What I say is white, is white, and what I say is black, is black!”
Practitioner Chen mentioned above did the Falun Gong exercises in early 2017, and was tied up by his cellmates. Mr. Zheng, along with two other practitioners, Mr. Zhou Guoping, and Mr. Yu (first name unknown), reported the incident to division head Zhang. Zhang pushed a round object into Mr. Yu’s mouth before punching him hard on the mouth. Two of Mr. Zhou’s teeth fell out as a result.
At around 7 a.m. on May 25, 2017, Mr. Zheng spotted Mr. Zhou and Mr. Chen being tortured again. He reported it to guard Xiong, only to be punched on the back by the latter. Xiong was also heard saying, “I am beating a political prisoner!”
Mr. Zheng went on a hunger strike for two days in protest. He was released on February 3, 2018.
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