Chen Zhenping is an architect and Falun Gong practitioner. Authorities detained her without any warrant on 9 July 2008 at her home in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. The charge against her of “using a heretical organization to subvert the law” resulted in an 8-year prison term. In Henan Provincial Women’s prison, she has endured regular beatings, electric shocks and forced injections of drugs.

Chen’s eldest daughter Jin Zhaoyu – pictured with her above – describes her mother’s experience:

We have had no information about our mother since November 2009, when a former prisoner in the same prison as my mother was released and told us about her condition. The news was terrible. She had been tied to a bed, beaten and force-fed drugs. This former prisoner often heard her crying out, shouting she did not want to be injected with drugs. She was often not allowed to go to the bathroom, nor to shower.

Not being able to get any information about our mother since then, I often feel that she has already died. Otherwise, why wouldn’t we be able to get some information about her? My anguish is enormous.”

Amnesty International has documented particularly severe treatment in detention of Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to recant their beliefs. The severity of the treatment often intensifies until they relent. During her previous incarcerations Chen Zhenping consistently refused to renounce her beliefs.

Amnesty International is also concerned that Chen Zhenping’s lawyer has not been allowed to see her or to provide her with legal assistance. She may have been tried without ever having been questioned. The family was informed about the trial only after it had taken place.

From Amnesty International’s Annual Report 2010

In 2010, the authorities in China continued to tighten restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and association due partly to sensitivities surrounding a series of landmark anniversaries, including the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic on 1 October.

Human rights defenders were detained, prosecuted, held under house arrest and subjected to enforced disappearance. Pervasive internet and media controls remained. “Strike hard” campaigns resulted in sweeping arrests in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), particularly following violence and unrest in July. Independent human rights monitoring was prevented in Tibet an-populated regions. The authorities continued to strictly control the parameters of religious practice, with Catholic and Protestant groups practicing outside official bounds being harassed, detained and sometimes imprisoned. The severe and systematic 10-year campaign against the Falun Gong continued.

> Read more from the Amnesty International Annual Report 2010

Falun Gong is a spiritual movement based on traditional Chinese breathing and meditative exercises called qigong. Official Chinese and Falun Gong sources estimate that tens of millions of Chinese citizens practiced Falun Gong in the 1990s.

In 1999, the authorities declared the group a “heretical organization” and a “threat to social and political stability” and launched a campaign of persecution aimed at eradicating the group. Since then, tens of thousands of practitioners have been arbitrarily detained, sentenced to long prison terms after unfair trials, or sentenced to terms of Re-education through Labour (RTL), a form of administrative detention imposed without charge, trial or judicial review.

Falun Gong sources regularly report deaths in detention, or shortly after release, of practitioners from torture and other ill-treatment, with over 100 such cases confirmed by them in 2009.

Ethnic minorities in China, including Tibetans and Uighurs, are also subjected to systematic discrimination for practicing their religious beliefs.

Amnesty International reports on Falun Gong China:

Report on Falun Gong in China

Report on torture and ill-treatment of Falun Gong in China

Report on religious repression in China

You can send a message of support to Chen Zhenping by mail.

You may send any kind of card, without mentioning Amnesty International, and you may include your return address.

Suggested message:

Translation: “We support you. We wish for your early release and freedom.”

Please send your message to Amnesty International’s Toronto office:

Attn: Chen Zhenping appeal
Amnesty International, Toronto Office
1992 Yonge Street, 3rd Floor
Toronto, ON
M4S 1Z7