Before Party Congress, Suppression of Falun Gong in Full Force

As the Communist Party makes meticulous preparations for its 18th National Congress, to be held on Nov. 8, many groups that are supposed to pose a challenge to the Party’s “stability” have been targeted via a massive security mobilization.

Li Hongkui, a Falun Gong practitioner from Harbin, died in a hospital in August of this year, after being severely beaten by guards in prison. The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has been stepped up in the lead-up to the Congress, according to research groups. Minghui.org

Tian Xiaoping, a 51-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, was sent to prison for 14 years this May. Police caught her in November last year after she and a number of others visited the family home of another practitioner who had been killed. Her sentence is one of the harshest in the 13-year-long campaign against the practice, and was part of a ratcheting up of the campaign against Falun Gong this year as the Communist Party planned for its 18th Congress.