Ex-Train Inspector in Hunan Faces Fourth Sentence for Faith

Mr. Liao Zhijun, a former train inspector from Chenzhou City, Hunan Province, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 10,000 yuan on January 13, 2025 for his unwavering faith in Falun Gong. He has since filed an appeal against the verdict.

According to Minghui.org, this marks his fourth prison sentence since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched its systematic persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, bringing his total time behind bars to 18.5 years. His entire family practices Falun Gong and has endured decades of persecution, their lives shattered and torn apart over the past 25 years.

Over a dozen years of torment

Before his latest sentencing, Mr. Liao had already suffered 13.5 years of incarceration under brutal conditions. He was imprisoned for two years in Xinkaipu Labor Camp, three and a half years in Jinshi Prison, and eight years in Wangling Prison.

Throughout these years, he endured severe physical abuse, psychological torment, and inhumane confinement—tactics designed to break his will and force him to renounce his faith. Arbitrary arrests and illegal detentions became routine, as authorities employed methods that flagrantly violated international human rights standards. These abuses continue to this day.

A family devastated

The CCP’s relentless campaign against Falun Gong has exacted a devastating toll on Mr. Liao’s family. His father, Mr. Liao Songlin, was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong. After enduring multiple terms behind bars, he passed away in 2021 at the age of 81—just one year after his release from Wangling Prison. Years of mistreatment and harsh detention conditions had irreparably damaged his health.

The persecution extended to the women in Mr. Liao’s family as well. His mother, Meng Qinglian, traveled to Beijing in December 2000 to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. Instead of receiving justice, she was detained at the Shijingshan Detention Center, where she endured harsh interrogations and repeated beatings. In one chilling incident, an officer stripped off her coat in the dead of winter—when temperatures had dropped to -7°C (20°F)—and poured a quart of cold water over her body. She was then restrained as officers forcibly pried open her mouth to administer unknown drugs.

Mr. Liao’s wife, Zhang Yan, was also targeted. In April 2013, she was arrested alongside her husband. While she was released the same day, Mr. Liao was later sentenced to four years in prison.

The CCP’s brutality exposed

The systematic persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, exemplified by the suffering of Mr. Liao Zhijun and his family, starkly reveals the CCP’s blatant disregard for human rights and religious freedom. The regime’s methods—arbitrary arrests, unjust sentencing, and inhuman treatment in detention centers and prisons—are designed to quash any form of spiritual dissent. These oppressive tactics deny practitioners their fundamental rights to freedom of belief, free expression, and due process, while inflicting profound and lasting damage on individuals and families alike.

The Falun Dafa Information Center calls on the international community to recognize and condemn these atrocities, urging concerted action to safeguard the rights of all individuals to practice their beliefs without fear of persecution. The tragic story of the Liao family is a powerful reminder of the urgent need to confront and end these human rights abuses in China.