Two men who promoted traditional learning for children were detained for no apparent reason other than their faith in Falun Gong, a former colleague says.
Two Chinese citizens who run a private learning program focused on traditional culture have been detained by the authorities in a case of religious persecution spanning multiple provinces.
On April 23, Wang Yunxiao, of central China’s Wuhan, and Ran Xinglong, resident in Shanghai, were abruptly arrested by officers from a county police bureau in Huangshan city of Anhui Province, eastern China.
Wang and Ran are the cofounders of Green Academy, an education company for children offering online courses and in-person summer and winter camps.
For the winter camp this January, together with parents and teaching assistants, the two instructors took groups of students to the Wudang mountains and Huangshan, both places of significance for China’s ancient spiritual and cultural heritage.
According to one of the men’s good friends and former colleague, Hu Yongning, who recently spoke with the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times about their case, as well as overseas Chinese legal scholars, the only reason for Wang and Ran’s detention seems to be their adherence to the teachings of Falun Gong, a faith group that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999.
Detained for ‘Speaking the Truth’
Millions of Falun Gong practitioners continue to live in China, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Freedom House. Despite the severity of the persecution and heavy censorship by the communist regime, many of them persevere in telling their fellow Chinese about their faith to expose injustices under the CCP rule.
Related Stories
On May 23, Hu and other Falun Gong practitioners in New York demonstrated before the Chinese Consulate in Manhattan to raise awareness about Wang and Ran’s arrests, and to call for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong.
“Both of their homes were ransacked. Their computers, phones, and those belonging to their family members were confiscated. Even the phone of one of their students’ parents was taken,” said Hu, who emigrated to the United States in April 2024.
Plainclothes policemen watch as a female Falun Gong practitioner resists arrest while being forced by police toward a police van, in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on May 11, 2000. Stephen Shaver/AFP via Getty Images
Hu suspected that Wang and Ran were reported to the authorities for “speaking the truth” about Falun Gong during their classes, but noted that the arrests came in April, several months after Green Academy’s winter camp ended in January.
The two men were slapped with vague charges of subverting state power, a common charge police and courts use against Falun Gong practitioners and other religious prisoners in China.
Following Wang and Ran’s detention, the police broadened their investigation, Hu said, bringing in multiple parents for questioning. Several elementary school children who attended the winter camp were also taken to the police station to be interrogated.
“One parent who helped Ran Xinglong during the winter camp as a teaching assistant was interrogated from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, without anything to eat, for an entire week,” Hu said.
He added that another parent said she was asked about the content of Ran’s teachings.
“They’ve interviewed several parents, but never explained what the two actually did to justify arresting them. The [female] parent was baffled. Why were the police harassing her like this?” Hu said.
Li Yuqing, a Chinese legal scholar residing in the United States, told NTD, the sister media outlet of The Epoch Times, that there was no lawful grounds for the arrests of Wang and Ran.
“There really is no reason, because they don’t need one. [The regime] arrests Falun Gong practitioners without any justification,” Lu said.
Promoting Traditional Culture
While Green Academy itself was established in 2023, Wang, Ran, and Hu began their educational work over a decade earlier.
“As Falun Gong practitioners, we emphasize reviving traditional culture. Society today is very materialistic, but we teach students that life isn’t just about pleasure-seeking or getting into a good university,“ Hu told The Epoch Times. ”What matters most is returning to one’s original, true self.
“Our educational goal is to help children understand from an early age that life has spiritual meaning, that the divine is real, contrary to what is claimed by [the CCP’s] atheism.”
The trio was guided and inspired by Wang’s late father, Wang Xueming, a researcher of Chinese language and literature.
A secondary school teacher from Chengdu, southwestern China’s Sichuan Province, the elder Wang was not yet 30 when the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999.
Like tens of thousands of other Falun Gong practitioners, Wang Xueming travelled to Beijing to protest in Tiananmen Square, calling upon the Chinese regime to end its crackdown.
As a result of his demonstration, he was beaten and tortured by Sichuan police stationed in the Chinese capital. He also lost his teaching job upon returning to Chengdu.
Undeterred, he organized private classes to promote traditional culture and values. The holder of a master’s degree in education from Sichuan Normal University, he faced constant surveillance and interference by the police due to his faith, but was aided by his son and other like-minded individuals, including Ran and Hu.
“Every time he tried to establish an education company, the authorities would shut it down as soon as it started to grow,” Hu recalled. “They’d seize its assets and disband the company. If it showed any signs of success, they’d destroy it.”
Wang Xueming’s Sacrifice
Under pennames including “Yun Xiao” and “Tang Ming,” Wang Xueming was also a noted writer, being a member of the Sichuan Writers Association and earning an award for his blog posts in 2007.
While imprisoned between 2002 and 2005, he wrote a nearly 300,000-word collection of teaching materials—only to have it confiscated by the prison staff before his release. In connection with another one-year sentence served for what the authorities said was “running an illegal business” in 2011 and 2012, the police burned or seized 6,000 books owned or written by Wang Xueming, representing a loss of more than 1 million yuan (about $140,000), according to Minghui.
Despite the abuses he suffered behind bars, he remained in excellent physical condition and travelled throughout China to give lectures.
Hu Yongning supported Falun Gong and its core teachings of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance for many years. However, the persecution in China kept him from taking up the practice.
That began to change in late 2019, when Hu started to develop a painful spinal disorder. Despite undergoing a variety of treatments, his condition did not see significant improvement.
“A doctor told me I might be afflicted for the rest of my life,” he told The Epoch Times.
People gather at an outdoor area to take a swab test during mass testing for COVID-19 in Beijing on June 23, 2020. Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images
In 2020, with the onset of the CCP’s draconian “zero-COVID” pandemic lockdowns, Hu was isolated at home. Dedicating himself to the study of Falun Gong’s teachings and practicing its five meditation exercises, he said he experienced a full recovery within a month.
Later that year, however, Wang Xueming was arrested for the final time upon arrival at the airport in Baotou, China’s Inner Mongolia region, according to Minghui. Sentenced to four years in prison, in September 2022, he was transferred to a facility in the city of Hohhot. Days later, prison staff claimed he “died suddenly.”
Family members were not permitted to see his body before cremation. He was 52.
Exposing a ‘Severe and Hidden’ Persecution
According to Minghui and other human rights organizations, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained or sentenced over the nearly 26 years since the CCP began its campaign to destroy the peaceful faith group.
A banner calling for the end of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China is displayed as practitioners demonstrate the spiritual practice’s meditation, next to the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 20, 2023. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times
Hu expressed concern about the fate of his friends, Wang Yunxiao and Ran Xinglong, given the possibility that they could be killed for their organs.
“They are completely helpless in China. No one can help them,” Hu said. “They have no income now.”
Ran’s wife has travelled to She county in Huangshan to seek her husband’s release, Hu said, while Ran himself has gone on a hunger strike to protest his unjust detention. They have two young children, aged 4 years and 8 months.
Following Wang Xueming’s sudden death, Hu felt a growing need to escape the country and help inform the world—particularly the U.S. government—about what he said are the “severe and hidden” abuses being perpetrated under CCP rule, especially the forced organ harvesting.
“When the Communist Party goes after people, they cover it up completely,“ Hu said. “The news is sealed off.”
He pointed out that “when a Falun Gong practitioner is arrested or persecuted, not even their neighbors know” because “the persecution is deeply hidden.”
Li Yuanming contributed to this report.
