(Minghui.org) Six residents of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, stood trial on June 4, 2026, for their faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Xu Zhenguo; his wife, Ms. Zhao Shuping; Ms. Xiong Fengyan; Ms. Xia Xiuhua, 84; Ms. Tang Guiyan; and Ms. Yao Xiurong were arrested on October 28, 2025, while talking to people about Falun Gong at a community fair. The Fengrun District Procuratorate approved their arrests on December 4, 2025, and later transferred the case to the Zunhua City Procuratorate, which, together with the Zunhua City Court, have been designated to handle all Falun Gong cases in the greater Tangshan area.
During the trial on June 4, the practitioners’ family members and friends were initially allowed to enter the courtroom after several rounds of security and ID checks. At 10:10 a.m., ten minutes into the session, the presiding judge, Wang Xuemei, suddenly ordered all of them to leave, saying that the case involved “state secrets” and shouldn’t be open to the public.
Ms. Xiong’s lawyer protested and demanded to see the legal basis for the “no spectators” order. When no spectator left, prosecutor Gao Yujie threatened to detain them. He also ordered the practitioners to persuade their families to leave.
In the end, six people from the families of Mr. Xu, Ms. Zhao, and Ms. Tang were forced to leave, but ten family members of the other practitioners stayed despite the pressure.
After a brief standoff, the presiding judge resumed the hearing after receiving “permission” from the higher-ups.
Ms. Xia only found out during the hearing that the two lawyers her family hired for her had refused to enter a not guilty plea for her. She dismissed the lawyers immediately. The judge said she had ten days to find a new lawyer and ordered her to leave the courtroom.
Ms. Xiong’s lawyer requested an adjournment of the hearing as the exclusion of Ms. Xia from the joint trial would be equivalent to splitting the case into two cases without proper legal procedures. The judge dismissed the request and continued the hearing with the five remaining practitioners in court.
While reading the indictment, the prosecutor revealed that the police had already created a case against the practitioners in May 2025, five months before the arrests were made. Although the indictment focused on the practitioners’ talking to people about Falun Gong at the community fair on October 28, 2025, the prosecution evidence included photos that the police had secretly taken of the practitioners between May and October 2025.
Ms. Xiong’s lawyer pointed out what the police did violated legal procedures because they apparently had built the case to frame the practitioners. The judge ignored him.
When the hearing resumed at 1:20 p.m. after the lunch break, the bailiffs ordered all attendees to turn in their IDs to “verify their identities.” They threatened to arrest any spectator found to be a Falun Gong practitioner.
Ms. Xiong’s lawyer demanded to see the legal basis for the identity verification order. He also urged the spectators not to comply with the order. The judge continued the hearing without insisting.
Around 4 p.m., Ms. Xiong suddenly fainted due to high blood pressure and was taken to the hospital. Her lawyer demanded the judge to adjourn the hearing, but the judge refused.
The prosecutor recommended sentencing the remaining four practitioners to 1.5 – 4.5 years.
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