Former Xinjiang Institute of Technology lecturer Ms. Li Xianghong sentenced twice to a total of 14 years for practising Falun Gong, dismissed from public employment and deprived of her pension, living a difficult life

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

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 persisted in her Falun Gong faith, she has repeatedly suffered persecution by the Chinese Communist Party over the past more than 20 years: she was forcibly confined to a psychiatric hospital and sentenced twice to a total of 14 years in prison.

Over the past more than 20 years, Li Xianghong has not only suffered physical and mental persecution, but has also endured severe economic pressure. 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 pension contributions already paid. In 2021, she was hospitalized for cancer radiotherapy and heart surgery, lost publicly funded medical care, and had her family bear the entire cost of treatment, which amounted to more than 100,000 yuan and caused enormous economic pressure. Now that Li Xianghong has reached retirement age, she has no income at all because her pension has been taken away. She lives alone, and her livelihood in old age faces serious difficulties.