Former Xinjiang Institute of Technology Lecturer Ms. Li Xianghong Sentenced to a Total of 14 Years in Two Prison Terms for Practising Falun Gong, Dismissed from Public Office and Deprived of Her Pension; Life Difficult

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On May 25, 2026, this outlet learned: Ms. Li Xianghong, a 63-year-old former lecturer at the Xinjiang Institute of Technology (later merged into Xinjiang University), was sentenced to a total of 14 years in two prison terms for practising Falun Gong, dismissed from public office and deprived of her pension, and is now living in difficult circumstances.

Li Xianghong began practising Falun Gong in 1997. On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party began its comprehensive persecution of Falun Gong. Because Li Xianghong insisted on her faith in Falun Gong, she has repeatedly suffered persecution by the Chinese Communist Party over the past more than 20 years: she was forcibly confined in a psychiatric hospital and sentenced to a total of 14 years in two prison terms.

Over the past more than 20 years, Li Xianghong has not only suffered physical and mental persecution, but has also endured severe economic suppression. After she was sentenced for the first time in 2001, the Xinjiang Institute of Technology immediately dismissed her, wiping out her 16 years of service and all the pension contributions she had paid. In 2021, she was hospitalised for radiotherapy for cancer and heart surgery, lost publicly funded medical care, and her family had to bear the entire treatment cost of more than 100,000 yuan, causing enormous financial pressure. Now that Li Xianghong has reached retirement age, she has no income because her pension was taken away. She lives alone, and her livelihood in old age faces serious difficulties.