(Minghui.org) Ms. Gao Jianling completed a 7.5-year prison term in June 2025 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She recently recounted the abuse she was put through in jail.
Ms. Gao, a Tianjin resident, began to practice Falun Gong in 1998 and soon regained health. She also strove to follow Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, to be a good person.
Ms. Gao was arrested on December 28, 2017, and sentenced to seven and a half years by the Wuqing District Court on November 15, 2018. She was admitted to the Tianjin Women’s Prison in January 2019.
While Ms. Gao was held in the Second Team of the Fifth Division in the prison, the division director Du Yan, sub-division director Yao Yao, and captain Song Yunjie instigated inmate Li Ming to torture her.
In the heat of the summer, they didn’t allow her to shower for over three weeks or provide her with toilet paper. They also didn’t allow her to drink water and starved her. Inmate Li took away the eggs, fruit, and meat allotted to Ms. Gao. She wasn’t allowed to buy any extra food, and she could only spend 50 yuan on daily necessities every month. She was constantly deprived of sleep and forced to stand for long periods of time. She was covered in bruises from frequent beatings.
In a short time, her body weight dropped from 70 kg (154 lbs) to 51 kg (112 lbs). Once, her heart rate reached 130 beats per minute, yet the inmates still forced her to endure the standing torture.
Starting in February 2020, the new division director Liu Rui worked with sub-division director Yao and captain Song to carry out a “transformation” campaign against Ms. Gao. Inmates Qu Jinjin and Su Chunyuan were instructed to monitor her. They forced her to stand or sit motionless for long hours every day. They beat her when she couldn’t keep her back straight. Sub-division director Yao often stomped on her feet. Inmate Su once slapped her in the face, leaving a scar that is still visible today.
Inmate Su beat Ms. Gao again in July 2020. Ms. Gao had bloodshot eyes, and her face was swollen and bruised. She complained to captain Song, yet Song claimed that she didn’t see anything on the surveillance camera. Su became even more brazen, often bragging about how capable she was in torturing Ms. Gao.
Ms. Gao was once held in the prison library for over a month. Due to the long hours of standing, she developed dangerously high blood pressure. At night, the inmates woke her up every 30 minutes and forced her to stand for five minutes before letting her go back to bed.
After Sun Wei became the new division director in September 2020, the guards held another “transformation” campaign against Ms. Gao.
Inmate Qu often beat Ms. Gao and slapped her in the face in a small room in the workshop. Qu also pulled her hair, stomped on her toes until they were bruised, and spat saliva and phlegm onto her face or into her water cup.
Qu denied Ms. Gao any restroom use. When she wet her pants, Qu threw them away. Ms. Gao was eventually left with no pants and had to cover herself with a large black plastic bag.
During the 2020 Mid-Autumn Festival, the prison provided extra food to the inmates, but Qu took Ms. Gao’s portion away.
Before Ms. Gao was released in June 2025, the guards forced her to sign a statement, saying that she suffered no torture in prison.
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