(Minghui.org) After Ms. Xiao Jiying returned home bedridden and incapacitated from years of imprisonment and torture for practicing Falun Gong, she had to face constant harassment by the police and domestic violence from her husband. The non-stop verbal and physical abuse further exacerbated Ms. Xiao’s health decline and she passed away on May 1, 2017. She was 68.
Ms. Xiao and her children, Mr. Tang Jian and Ms. Tang Sulan, of Chongqing, all started to practice Falun Gong before the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of the spiritual discipline in July 1999.
Mr. Tang, like several of his classmates, lost his qualifications to pursue a PhD degree at Southwest Petroleum University, simply for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. Although he stayed at the school and worked as a teacher, he soon lost his job after he was arrested for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in October 1999. His sister, who went with him, was also arrested and expelled by the Sichuan International Studies University.
Mother and Two Children Sentenced to Prison
Ms. Xiao and her two children were arrested between July and August 2002. They were tried by the Jinniu District Court on June 19, 2003. Both Ms. Xiao and Ms. Tang were sentenced to seven years at the Chengdu Women’s Prison. Mr. Tang was given four years at the Wumaping Prison, where he was severely tortured and the scar on his wrist is still visible today. Another practitioner who was arrested and sentenced with them, Ms. Duan Shiqiong, held a hunger strike in the prison and was persecuted to death on September 16, 2003.
After years of torture in the prison, Ms. Xiao suffered very high blood pressure and brain stem atrophy. She had difficulty walking and talking. Unable to take care of herself, she was released on medical parole in 2007.
Harassment and Domestic Violence
Upon returning home, officers from the Xuanhualu Police Station and residential committee kept coming to harass Ms. Xiao. This caused tremendous fear and distress in her husband, a member of the Chinese Communist Party. When he was also being criticized for having a Falun Gong practitioner wife while attending community events of Party members, he became even more enraged and he began to verbally abuse and beat Ms. Xiao.
The tormenting mental pressure caused Ms. Xiao to become completely paralyzed and she often fell into a coma. As her pension and health insurance had been suspended by the authorities as part of the persecution, it was even more difficult for her to seek medical treatment.
To better take care of Ms. Xiao and protect her from further harassment, her daughter took her to her own home in Wuhan City, Hubei Province. But this didn’t stop the police and residential committee staff members from contacting her husband, who had moved to Wuhan as well, driving him to continue abusing her.
In July 2016, shortly after an episode of harassment and abuse at home, Ms. Xiao’s condition quickly deteriorated and she fell into a coma. Her husband forbade their daughter from taking her to the hospital and insisted on letting her “leave the world peacefully.” Only after his daughter-in-law strongly insisted on taking her to the hospital, did he relent.
After more than twenty days in the intensive care unit, Ms. Xiao finally came out of the coma. The police and residential committee staff members, however, continued to harass her after she was discharged. Under non-stop abuse and harassment, she passed away on May 1, 2017.
Further Persecution of Son
After Ms. Xiao’s son, Mr. Tang Jian, was released in 2006, he found a job at ZTE Corporation and was highly valued by his manager.
On November 1, 2011, Mr. Tang was arrested again by officers from the Haitangxi Police Station and held at the Nan’an District Detention Center. As his wife, Ms. Li Xiao, has gone into hiding to avoid being persecuted for practicing Falun Gong, his mother-in-law went to the detention center to visit him several times, but was never allowed to see him.
Mr. Tang was tried by the Nan’an District Court on February 13, 2012 and sentenced to three years on March 16. His wife tried to file a motion to reconsider his case with the Chongqing Political and Legal Affairs Committee (an extra-judiciary agency overseeing the public security and judiciary branches tasked to direct the persecution), the agency refused to accept her case.
When his family visited him at the Yongchuan Prison on June 17, 2012, about two weeks following his imprisonment, they saw that Mr. Tang was emaciated and haggard. They visited him again on July 9. He’d lost more weight and his feet were severely swollen. One of his legs was disabled and he had difficulty walking. He was so weak that he became completely exhausted after talking with his family for half an hour.
In addition to the persecution against Mr. Tang, his wife Ms. Li Xiao was also persecuted for their shared faith. She was given a two-year term at the Chongqing Women’s Forced Labor Camp in 1999 when she was 19. She was arrested again in 2005 and held in a brainwashing center. Only three days into her detention, she was taken to the hospital for resuscitation as a result of torture.
Over the past few years, officers from the Danzishi Police Station and residential committee in Chongqing have harassed Mr. Tang and Ms. Li several times. In early June 2021, the police pretended to be express couriers and asked him to come downstairs to take a package. Without having ordered anything online, Mr. Tang refused to go and the police eventually left.
Related reports:
Entire Family Severely Persecuted Over a Decade; Former College Teacher Arrested Again
Three Practitioners from the Same Family Illegally Sentenced in Chongqing
Wife Missing After Requesting Medical Treatment for Her Husband Detained at Yongchuan Prison
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