(Minghui.org) A 76-year-old woman in Tianjin was sentenced to four and a half years on August 12, 2026. This is the second time that Ms. Liu Zhimei has been wrongly convicted since 2024 for practicing Falun Gong.
Ms. Liu, born in January 1950, was arrested on June 12, 2025, by officers from the Hexi District Domestic Security Office and the Youyi Road Police Station. Her home was ransacked. Her husband, Mr. Wang Runxiang, was also arrested because the police alleged that a surveillance camera recorded him distributing Falun Gong informational materials. He was released later that day, but Ms. Liu remained in custody.
The police submitted Ms. Liu’s case to the Hedong District Procuratorate, and she was tried in the Hedong District Court on June 18, 2026. She was convicted two months later.
Ms. Liu was previously arrested on July 22, 2022, after being reported for talking to people about the persecution of Falun Gong in a public place. The police ransacked her home and summoned her many times after releasing her on bail. She was indicted by the Hexi District Procuratorate on December 5, 2022.
During a hearing in the Hexi District Court on February 6, 2023, Mr. Wang served as Ms. Liu’s family non-lawyer defender, but he was not allowed to speak.
Ms. Liu was sentenced to one year with an 8,000-yuan fine on April 26, 2023. She appealed with the Tianjin City Second Intermediate Court but lost the case.
When she was only in her 40s, Ms. Liu suffered from a long list of ailments, including migraines, heart disease, angina, kidney stones, and a rheumatic frozen shoulder. When she heard about Falun Gong’s health benefits, she decided to learn the exercises. In just a few days, she had recovered completely. Her husband, daughter, son, and daughter-in-law, who all lived together in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, began practicing, too. They also hosted study sessions to read the Falun Gong books in their home.
After the Chinese communist regime initiated the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, the family endured repeated arrests, harassment, and detention for upholding their faith. Ms. Liu was arrested over 10 times and handed the two prison sentences mentioned above. Her son, Mr. Wang Haifeng, was sent to a forced labor camp and fired from his job. Her daughter, Ms. Wang Haiyan, was also sentenced and subjected to involuntary drug administration, which led her to suffer a mental breakdown.
Earlier Arrests
On July 22, 1999, only two days after the persecution started, officers from the Meiling Police Station broke into Ms. Liu’s home and arrested all the practitioners who were there reading Falun Gong books together.
Ms. Liu was interrogated at the Meiling Police Station overnight and released the following afternoon. The police forced her to report to them every day for two weeks.
Also in July 1999, Mr. Wang Haifeng was arrested for distributing Falun Gong flyers. He was detained for 25 days and fired from his job.
Around the same time, the police forced Ms. Liu’s landlord to evict the family, even though her daughter-in-law, Ms. Lyu Caiyun, had just given birth. Only two months after they relocated, the authorities forced them to move again.
The family went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in October 1999, and were arrested. Because both Ms. Lyu and Ms. Wang were still nursing, they were soon released. Ms. Liu and her son were detained for nearly 50 days.
In December 1999, Ms. Lyu and Ms. Wang were arrested again after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. The police beat them, leaving bruises all over their bodies. Ms. Lyu’s legs were so swollen that she had difficulty walking.
Ms. Wang’s husband didn’t practice Falun Gong, but the police also beat and harassed him. They also threatened to have his employer fire him.
In September 2000, over 10 officers from the Qinhuangdao Development District Police Department, including Wang Zhouzhong and Zhu Weiguo, broke into the family’s home in the middle of the night and arrested everyone, including both of Ms. Liu’s year-old grandsons.
The police claimed that Mr. Wang Haifeng had been reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials. They beat him and hung him up by his wrists. He was given three years and three months in the Tangshan Forced Labor Camp. Because he refused to renounce Falun Gong, he was forced to watch propaganda videos, tortured, and forced to do hard labor for over 10 hours a day.
The rest of the family were first held at the Qianjin Police Station and then transferred to a “guesthouse.” The police refused to give them anything to eat, and the two toddlers cried from hunger. Only when Ms. Wang and Ms. Lyu threatened to escape with their sons by jumping out of the window from the four-story building did the police release them two days later.
When the two young mothers returned home, they were evicted by the landlord again and had no where to go. With the help of Falun Gong practitioners in the area, they found a temporary place to stay.
Ms. Liu and her husband were released after three weeks in the Shanhaiguan Detention Center. They moved to Beidaihe District in southern Qinhuangdao with their daughter, daughter-in-law, and the two grandchildren. They made a living selling steamed buns.
The family was disrupted again when the police forced Ms. Wang’s husband to reveal their location. Eight officers broke into Ms. Liu’s home one day at noon in May 2001 and took the couple to the police station. They tied their arms tightly with thin nylon ropes, causing excruciating pain, and then pushed them around to increase the pain. By the time the ropes were loosened, the couple’s arms were numb and non-responsive.
Mr. Wang was taken to the Shanhaiguan Detention Center and held for six months. The numbness in his arms lasted three months.
Ms. Liu was held in the Qinhuangdao City First Detention Center. Her arms were still numb when she was released four months later.
In August 2001, while her parents-in-law were still detained, Ms. Lyu returned to their residence in Beidaihe to retrieve some belongings. Police officers who had been lying in wait arrested her. She was detained for 22 days.
For the next few years, the family moved frequently to hide from the police. In July 2007, they moved to Shanghai. Both Mr. Wang Haifeng and Ms. Lyu found full time jobs. On January 8, 2009, the couple escaped from China while Mr. Wang was on a business trip abroad.
More Arrests of the Elderly Couple
Ms. Liu was arrested again in April 2007 for distributing Falun Gong materials, when she was still living in Qinhuangdao. She was detained for two weeks.
Ms. Liu and Mr. Wang were reported for putting up stickers that said “Falun Dafa is good” in August 2008. They were arrested by eight officers and taken to a detention center. Mr. Wang suffered dangerously high blood pressure, and Ms. Liu had kidney stones and intense pain. They were released after two weeks.
Residential community officers in Shanghai continued to harass the couple and forced them to move. Because they had been given custody of their eight-year-old grandson, they had a hard time making ends meet and providing for him. In March 2010, they were forced to move to Tianjin.
On December 22, 2010, over ten plainclothes officers broke into the couple’s home and confiscated their Falun Gong books, informational materials, computer, cell phone, and 7,000 yuan in cash. Because they remained silent during the interrogation, the police took them to the detention center. Both of them had dangerously high blood pressure. Ms. Liu was released on the third day, and Mr. Wang was released after over 10 days. The police returned only 3,000 yuan of the cash confiscated from them.
The couple were arrested again on June 11, 2021, and their home was ransacked. They were held in the Hexi District Branch Legal Case Management Center until August of that year.
Daughter’s Sentencing
On May 20, 2017, Ms. Wang, who stayed in Qinhuangdao City, was arrested by Shezhuang Police Station officers. She appeared in the Haigang District Court on November 20, 2018, and was sentenced to four years and three months, with a 3,000-yuan fine. She appealed with the Qinhuangdao City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict in March 2019. She was admitted to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison in July 2019.
In prison, Ms. Wang was force-fed toxic drugs. When her family visited her, she could no longer recognize them, not even her son. Her eyes were lifeless, and she did not react when they spoke to her.
She was released on June 21, 2021, but remains mute and in a delirious state most of the time.
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78-year-old Woman Sentenced to One Year for Practicing Falun Gong