Shandong Falun Gong Practitioner Dies Two Weeks After Medical Parole Release

A 63-year-old resident of Qixia City, Shandong Province, Lin Jianping had suffered decades of persecution for her faith. In a recent confrontation with the law, she was taken back into custody in mid-October 2024 to serve a three-year prison term meted out in March 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong. While incarcerated at Shandong Province Women’s Prison, she suffered severe abuse that left her in critical condition. Fearing responsibility for her deteriorating health, prison authorities released her on medical parole on January 30, 2025. Despite emergency treatment at a Yantai hospital, she tragically died in the early hours of February 13, 2025, according to Weiquanwang, a network of volunteer Chinese citizens defending human rights.

Unjust sentencing and arbitrary detention

On February 6, 2022, Ms. Lin spoke to a police officer at the Qixia Public Security Bureau, questioning the legitimacy of the ”Tiananmen self-immolation” narrative and denouncing the persecution of Falun Gong. In response, authorities framed and detained her, placing her under six months of ”residential surveillance” before formally charging her.

On December 19, 2022, Lin stood trial in a proceeding riddled with fabricated evidence. She vehemently defended herself and demanded the return of her legally owned property. Despite the lack of legitimate charges, the court sentenced her on March 29, 2023, to three years in prison and a fine of 5,000 yuan.

Initially released due to medical concerns, she was abducted again in mid-October 2024 by local police and taken to Shandong Province Women’s Prison. There, she endured relentless mistreatment, which severely impacted her mental and physical health. Fearing potential repercussions, the prison released her to her family on January 30, 2025—just the second day of the Chinese New Year. Her relatives rushed her to the hospital for emergency care, but she died at 2:00 AM on February 13, 2025, leaving behind a painful legacy of injustice.

A long history of persecution

Ms. Lin began practicing Falun Gong in 1998 and, since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched its nationwide persecution in 1999, she faced repeated detentions in brainwashing centers, labor camps, and prisons. She was subjected to both brutal physical abuse and relentless psychological torment.

In 2004, after speaking publicly about the persecution of Falun Gong, she was forcibly taken to a brainwashing center. There, she was shackled to a window frame, deprived of sleep, and forced to watch defamatory propaganda—tactics aimed at breaking her spirit, according to Minghui.org. After her 37-day stint at the brainwashing center, she was sentenced to three years of ”reeducation through forced labor.” In 2005, she received an additional three-year prison term.

At Wangcun Forced Labor Camp, Ms. Lin was handcuffed to a heating pipe for seven days. The handcuffs were so tight that her hands turned dark purple. She lost consciousness multiple times from the pain, yet the guards accused her of faking it. When she later went on a hunger strike in protest, they force-fed her, leaving the feeding tube in her nose for prolonged periods to maximize her suffering.

In 2006 while Ms. Lin was serving a sentence at Shandong Province Women’s Prison, she endured further horrors. Guards yanked out handfuls of her hair, locked her in solitary confinement, and injected her with unknown drugs. She was subjected to a variety of torture methods, that also included suffocation and beatings. In a particularly humiliating incident, a female guard stripped her down to her underwear and forced her to lie on a cold concrete floor in the presence of a male officer.

Her harrowing ordeal exemplifies the extreme measures employed by the CCP to silence those who stand by their beliefs. Beyond arbitrary arrests and sham trials, the Chinese regime systematically enforces physical torture, forced labor, and psychological abuse in its efforts to crush Falun Gong practitioners’ spirits—often leading to their deaths.

The Falun Dafa Information Center urges the international community to recognize and condemn these atrocities. A concerted global effort is necessary to protect the fundamental rights of all individuals to practice their faith freely, without fear of persecution.