Numerous Professionals Targeted for Their Faith in Falun Gong in 2021

Upper Row (left to right): Lu Guanru, Lu Songming, Gong Piqi, Mao Kun, Li LizhuangLower Row
(left to right): Li Hongshan, Shi Shaoping, Zhu Yubiao, Xu Yongqing, Yang Feng

 

 

Injected with Toxic Drugs While Imprisoned for His Faith, Former Government Official Dies Seven Years after His Release

After Mr. Jiang Guobo returned home in 2014 from serving a five-year term for practicing Falun Gong, he suffered lengthy complications from the involuntary drug administration in prison.

He often felt sick and threw up. His abdomen was bloated. He had blood in his stool. He was weak and dizzy and sometimes fainted. After struggling with poor health for seven years, he passed away on April 29, 2021. He was only 58 years old.

Mr. Jiang once said, “I suffered unimaginable torture in the detention centre. I was force-fed toxic drugs and strong spicy pepper water. My vomit was green. I was also tied to a cross for 20 days and let down only briefly from time to time. My spine fractured from being rubbed against a wooden block. I couldn’t see out of my right eye for a long time. I had trouble urinating and once suffered constipation for 26 days. I once lost nearly 100 pounds in just three weeks. I can’t remember how many times I was at death’s door.”

After the onset of the persecution in July 1999, Mr. Jiang, who was a member of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee in Weifang City, Shandong Province, was arrested 13 times for upholding his faith. He suffered 77 kinds of torture, including electric shocks, the tiger bench, and being force-fed toxic drugs while serving two labor camp terms and a five-year prison term. Even some inmates said they’d never seen anyone tortured so cruelly.

 

Health Destroyed after Three Prison Terms, Former History Teacher Dies in Despair

When Mr. Lu Songming returned home in 2018 after serving a third prison term for practicing Falun Gong, he had almost died several times due to torture in custody. Having lost the ability to work due to a severe heart condition, he relied on picking left-over vegetables in the farmers’ market to get by. He was easily exhausted after carrying heavy items and had to lie down frequently to rest. After struggling with poor health for three years, the 53-year-old man passed away on the evening of March 28, 2021.

Mr. Lu lost his mother at a young age and was raised by his father. After he graduated from Hunan Province Normal University in 1990, he became a history teacher in a middle school in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province.

When the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he had been practicing it for three years. For upholding his faith, he was fired by the middle school and sentenced three times, for a total of 14 years.

While serving time, he was hung up by his handcuffed wrists, beaten, shocked with electric batons, and forced to do long hours of intensive labor. The torture and abuse completely destroyed his health. He developed a severe heart condition and was on the verge of death a dozen times.

By the time Mr. Lu was released in 2006 after the first prison term, his wife had been forced by the authorities to divorce him. The court granted his house and custody of his son to his wife, leaving him homeless and penniless. He had to take odd jobs to make a living, including repairing shoes on the street and selling peanuts.

Retired Colonel Dies in Prison, Family Suspects Foul Play

Mr. Gong Piqi’s family received a call from a prison guard on the evening of April 12, 2021, and was told that the 66-year-old retired colonel in Qingdao City, Shandong Province, had just been taken to the hospital for resuscitation. Moments later, the guard called again and said Mr. Gong had died of a stroke.

When Mr. Gong’s family went to the hospital the next morning, the doctor and prison authorities refused to let them see his body. When the family protested, Mr. Gong’s older brother and nephew were finally allowed to see him but not to take photos or videos.

Mr. Gong’s head was injured and swollen and there was blood in his ears, according to his brother.

According to surveillance video later provided to Mr. Gong’s family, he was in bed the evening before he died. A prison doctor took his blood pressure but did not treat him. At around 8:32 p.m., Mr. Gong fell out of bed onto the floor and was unable to move. The ambulance didn’t arrive until 9 p.m. His family asked why it took half an hour for the ambulance to come.

While the guard who called his family claimed that Mr. Gong’s deadly stroke was caused by his non-compliance with treatment for his high blood pressure, his family asked why the prison had failed to inform them earlier of his condition or to release him on medical parole.

Mr. Gong was seized during a group arrest in October 2017. He was later sentenced to 7.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine on July 20, 2018.

Since 2020, citing the pandemic as an excuse, Shandong Province Prison authorities cut off all of Mr. Gong’s contact with his family. His family said they had no idea how he was faring in the prison.

Since the second half of 2020, the guards had been forcing the inmates to work from 5 a.m. to 7 or 9 p.m. with almost no breaks. When Mr. Gong and other practitioners refused to do the unpaid labor, they were held in a room to watch a film slandering Falun Gong.

By then, Mr. Gong had already begun to suffer high blood pressure and constantly felt dizzy. Seeing that Mr. Gong was leaning against the wall due to dizziness, inmate Li Feng said to him, “What’s up? Not feeling well? Don’t pretend. You won’t die.”

Li often said to the inmates, “Gong Piqi is just pretending (that he is dying). It would be just wonderful if he did.”

 

Accountant Dies While Serving 11.5 Years

While in a detention centre awaiting the results of her appeal of an 11.5-year prison sentence, Ms. Mao Kun, an accountant in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, was taken to a hospital emergency room around April 9, 2021.

Her family was asked to apply for medical parole on her behalf. But before they even got a chance to submit the application, Ms. Mao passed away in the hospital on the evening of April 11. She was 57. Her family suspects that torture may have been responsible for her sudden death.

Ms. Mao was arrested at home on July 10, 2019. Her arm was broken and her face was bruised during the violent arrest. Dozens of officers ransacked Ms. Mao’s home from 4 p.m. the day of the arrest until 2 a.m. the next day. Many personal belongings and informational materials about Falun Gong were confiscated.

Ms. Mao’s parents, in their 80s and who lived with her, were terrified by the police raid. They wept in the hallway while the police were ransacking their home.

Ms. Mao stood trial on December 28, 2020, and was later sentenced to 11.5 years with a 20,000-yuan fine.

 

Sentencing Cases

General Manager at a Power Company and His Family Sentenced to 7 to 12 Years

Mr. Li Guoqing is a general manager at the local power company in Tianjin. In his spare time, he runs a wedding ceremony company with his wife Ms. Yu Bo and their daughter Ms. Li Lei.

On May 15, 2019, Ms. Yu and Ms. Li were arrested while driving out of their apartment complex. The police ransacked their home and confiscated their printer, fax machine and three private cars. Mr. Li was arrested later in the day. His father was so traumatised by the arrests that he had a stroke and was hospitalised.

Mr. Li suffered from high blood pressure and Ms. Li had stomach pain while being held in the local police station. The family of three was then taken to the Ninghe District Detention Centre.

They were indicted by the Ninghe District Procuratorate in early March 2020. Mr. Li was later sentenced to 12 years, Ms. Yu to 10 years and Ms. Li to 7 years by the Ninghe District Court.

 

Once Tortured and Sexually Assaulted in Prison, Orthopedic Surgeon Sentenced Again

After enduring six and a half years of imprisonment and torture, Mr. Li Lizhuang, a former orthopedic surgeon in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested again on April 8, 2020 for making phone calls to the public about how the communist regime covered up the pandemic, as well as how coronavirus patients recovered by reciting the auspicious phrases “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” He was sentenced to ten years and eight months with an 80,000-yuan fine on November 17, 2021 by the Ranghulu District Court.

Mr. Li, 48, graduated from Harbin Medical University in 1995 and took up Falun Gong that same year. Because of his excellent professional skills, he soon became an orthopedic surgeon at Harbin Medical University’s First Affiliated Hospital. He was known for always going the extra mile to help his patients. One of his patients didn’t have any money but desperately needed surgery. He paid for the pre-surgery blood test and operation, about 1,000 yuan in total, when his monthly salary at the time was 300 yuan.

After the communist regime started the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Mr. Li was repeatedly arrested and had his home ransacked. He served two labor camp terms and one prison term, for a total of six and a half years. He suffered beating, electric shocks, solitary confinement and sexual assaults for not renouncing his faith.

 

82-Year-Old Retired Teacher Sentenced to 10 Years

After being arrested and released several times, an 82-year-old retired teacher in Shenzhou City, Hebei Province, was sentenced to 10 years in January 2021 for his faith in Falun Gong.

Mr. Li Dengchen was first arrested at home on October 22, 2018. The police ransacked his residence and confiscated valuables worth 150,000 yuan. Due to his high blood pressure, the Shenzhou City Detention Centre refused to admit him, and he was released.

Only a month later, on November 23, he was arrested again and admitted to the Shenzhou City Detention Centre. Mr. Li developed a critical medical condition in his lungs and was treated in an intensive care unit in 2019. He was released on bail on April 26, 2019. By then, he had become emaciated, incontinent, and unable to care for himself. His legs were also swollen.

In late July 2020, Mr. Li received a notice to appear in court. He lived away from home again for a month to hide from the police.

In January 2021, he was arrested one more time and given a 10-year sentence. He has now been taken to the Baoding Prison.

 

Once Imprisoned for Eight Years, Former Border Control Officer Given Another Five Years

Having served eight years for practicing Falun Gong, a former border control officer was sentenced again to five years on October 14, 2021.

Mr. Li Hongshan, 49 and a native of Suibin County Heilongjiang Province, was arrested at his residence in Beijing on November 18, 2020, by officers of the Xihongmen Police Station. His motorcycle, bank card and cellphone were confiscated. He was sentenced to five years by the Daxing District Court on October 14, 2021.

Mr. Li was ordered to serve time in a prison in his native Heilongjiang Province, but due to coronavirus cases in Heilongjiang, he is still detained in Beijing. He has lost a significant amount of weight due to abuse in the detention centre. The guards also forbade him from wearing glasses, causing much difficulty to his daily life.

Mr. Li took up Falun Gong in May 1998. He credits the practice for curing his chronic insomnia and he also witnessed recovery of two leukemia patients from doing the practice. After joining the military, he worked hard and earned several merit awards, becoming one of the youngest reserve cadres. With the onset of the persecution, the border control force kept pressuring him to renounce Falun Gong. He was forced to live away from home.

On April 22, 2003, Mr. Li went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong and was arrested at Tiananmen Square. The police tied him up with his hands behind his back and caused excruciating pain to him.

Mr. Li was dismissed from the military in December 2003. The Suibin County Court later sentenced him to five years in Jiamusi Prison. While he was serving time, the Suibin County 610 Office, an extralegal agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, forced his wife to divorce him.

When Mr. Li was released in 2008, the local police refused to renew the household registration for him, causing him much trouble in daily life. To make a living, Mr. Li went to Beijing and did odd jobs. Despite his low income, he still made money transfers on a regular basis to his elderly father and young son still in Heilongjiang.

Mr. Li was arrested again for distributing Falun Gong informational materials on August 25, 2014 and later sentenced to three years.

 

Arrest and Harassment Cases

Associate Professor Detained at a Brainwashing Centre

Ms. Zhang Wei, a 47-year-old associate professor at Wuhan University of Technology in Hubei Province, was arrested at 7:30 a.m. on April 4, 2021, after she refused to sign statements to renounce Falun Gong. She was held in the Qingling Brainwashing Centre for over a month.

The police first attempted to arrest Ms. Zhang at 8 a.m. on April 3, 2021. While she escaped the arrest then, she was seized by the police the next morning, after they located her by tracking her cellphone.

This is the sixth time that Ms. Zhang has been arrested for her faith since the persecution started in July 1999. Following an arrest on November 7, 2000 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, she was held at the Wuhan No. 1 Detention Centre for ten months and nineteen days. She was subjected to various torture, including sleep deprivation, long hours of standing, savage beatings, being punched in the nose, and denied food and water, for not renouncing Falun Gong.

The guards often kept Ms. Zhang in an enclosed room without air conditioning or exposed her to mosquito bites in the summer, and opened the window in the winter to let the cold wind blow on her. They also forced her to do unpaid labor, including peeling onions and making books. Sometimes they forced her and other Falun Gong practitioners to stand in the snow, naked, with the excuse of doing a “safety inspection.”

 

Former Lawyer Detained for Five Days in a Brainwashing Centre

A dozen officers arrested Mr. Zhu Yubiao and ransacked his home on April 11, 2021. The former lawyer in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, was held in a brainwashing facility for five days before being released on April 16. The police revealed that they have been monitoring him on a regular basis. They threatened to arrest him and detain him in a brainwashing centre again if he continues to practice Falun Gong.

As the first lawyer who dared to defend practitioners of Falun Gong in Guangdong after the Chinese communist regime began to persecute this spiritual discipline in 1999, the local judicial authorities labeled Mr. Zhu an “anti-revolutionary” and revoked his license to practice law.

For upholding his faith and defending fellow practitioners, he was arrested three times and incarcerated for over three and half years in total. His latest arrest was carried out by officers from the Haizhu District Police Department, the Xingang Police Station, the district Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and the local community.

Mr. Zhu, 50, has a Master’s degree in law from Sun Yat-sen University and practiced law at the Guangda Law Firm and GFE Law Office. He was a man of integrity and did not shy away from standing up to the powerful that abused their power to persecute innocent people. He often defended minorities for no or reduced fees. His good deeds put him in the news twice.

Mr. Zhu defended three Falun Gong practitioners in 2005 and 2006. At one of the hearings, a prosecutor suggested that the defendant should have practiced Falun Gong in private to avoid being arrested.

Mr. Zhu was arrested on February 10, 2007, and tortured in Guangzhou City 3rd Forced Labor Camp for a year and a half. The guards tortured him with a Tiger Bench, put him in the position of “Flying an Airplane,” waterboarded him, poured cold water on him in the winter, smashed his fingers and toes, and deprived him of sleep.

 

 

The Guangdong Department of Justice suspended his license to practice law because of the 2007 arrest.

He was arrested again on August 18, 2010, and a Haizhu District Court judge sentenced him to two years in Beijiang Prison. After his term was up in 2012, the authorities transferred him to Sanshui Brainwashing Centre and tortured him for two more months.

 

Former Police Supervisor Experiences Severe Chest Pain While in Custody

Ms. Liang Yaomin, a former police supervisor in Yantai City, Shandong Province, has been suffering severe heart problems and her legs shake uncontrollably, following her arrest on January 9, 2021.

Her lawyer and family submitted an application for the release of the 62-year-old woman on bail on medical grounds, but the police rejected the application, saying that the rejection was due to “her bad attitude of not cooperating with the authorities or pleading guilty.”

Ms. Liang experienced severe chest pain when she was tried by the Haiyang City Court through a video conference on December 16, 2021. She was resuscitated by the detention centre and the judge postponed the hearing to December 30.

During her second hearing, the prosecutor presented a few witness accounts, but Ms. Liang pointed out that none of the witnesses provided their IDs as required by the law. Some of the prosecution evidence was obviously fabricated. Ms. Liang said the key information about the police raids in two different locations was even mixed up.

Not long afterwards, she suffered another episode of severe chest pain and the hearing was adjourned again.

Ms. Liang used to work as a trace inspection engineer of Haiyang City Police Department, with the title of a Third-class police supervisor. She was one of the few female investigative officers in the province. She has superb skills and cracked many major and important cases.

Due to long-term stress at work, Ms. Liang suffered from a long list of severe ailments, including heart disease, atrophic gastritis, gallbladder edema, pancreatitis, neuropathic pain, arthritis, and cervical spine hyperplasia.

A friend introduced her to Falun Gong on January 20, 1996, after learning about Falun Gong’s tremendous health benefits. After two weeks of studying the spiritual teachings of Falun Gong and doing its meditative exercises, Ms. Liang’s condition improved. She completely recovered one month later.

Ms. Liang’s miraculous recovery became the big news in the local police system and in Haiyang City. Many people came to learn Falun Gong, including the leaders and their families of the city committee. The head of the Haiyang City Police Department let her play Falun Gong’s lectures in his office, so as to let more people learn about it.

Since the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution in July 1999, Ms. Liang has been arrested, detained in a brainwashing class, sent to a psychiatric hospital and forced labor camp, and sentenced for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. She was also fired by the police department. She opened a clothing store to make a living, only to be arrested again and face another prison sentence.

Having Served Four Years, Former Information Engineering College Teacher Faces Prosecution Again

Mr. Yang Feng, a 51-year-old former teacher of the Weifang Information Engineering College in Shandong Province, was arrested at home on April 7, 2021. Two of his laptops and Falun Gong books were confiscated. He is now held at the Dezhou City Detention Centre and faces prosecution. His mother, Ms. Feng Zhihong, who suffers cerebellar atrophy and has difficulty walking and talking, struggles to care for herself.

Mr. Yang’s latest arrest came two years after he finished serving an earlier four-year term for practicing Falun Gong. He developed a severe heart condition due to the torture at Shandong Province Prison.

 

85-Year-Old Retired Engineer Harassed for Talking to People About Falun Gong

An 85-year-old retired senior engineer in Beijing has been harassed and had his home frequently raided in recent years, for talking to people about his faith in Falun Gong.

The recent harassment of Mr. Pan Qin started on February 26, 2020. More than ten agents from Babaoshan Police Station and the local residential committee broke into his home and spent two hours ransacking the apartment. They confiscated his Falun Gong books, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, 1,000 yuan in cash, three laptop computers, three printers, and a paper cutter. He protested the raid and refused to sign the list of confiscated items.

A group of unidentified officers ransacked Mr. Pan’s home again on April 23, 2021, without a search warrant. This time, they confiscated one laptop computer, one printer, and over 1,000 yuan in cash.

Mr. Pan went to a local tourist site on October 1, 2021, and was reported by two middle school students for talking to people about Falun Gong. The police took him to the Xiangshan Police Station after body searching him and finding three copies of Falun Gong informational materials on him.

One police officer snatched Mr. Pan’s home key and searched his apartment. His computer, printer, and Zhuan Falun, the main teaching of Falun Gong, were confiscated. The police intended to give Mr. Pan 14 days of administrative detention but relented due to his advanced age.

Police officers subsequently monitored Mr. Pan around the clock until November 9. Agents from the residential committee went to Mr. Pan’s home twice and tried to persuade him to sign statements to renounce his faith. He refused to comply.

Mr. Pan said to the Minghui correspondent who interviewed him, “I joined the military in my youth and I also worked as the Party secretary of a machinery factory after I was demobilized. Through the decades of my career as a veteran Party official, I witnessed political campaigns one after another, as well as the communist regime’s evil nature. After I retired, I began to practice Falun Gong, and benefitted from it. I hope people who believe the communist regime’s propaganda against Falun Gong can all think about this for themselves and see through the lies.”

 

Police Officer Fired for His Faith in Falun Gong

Despite being a police officer himself, Mr. Wang Xiaoming, 50, has been subjected to repeated harassment and detention for practicing Falun Gong. In the authorities’ latest attempt to force him to renounce his faith, the resident of Fushun City, Liaoning Province was fired by the Xinbin County Police Department that he had worked at for decades.

In the past 22 years, the authorities made several attempts to fire Mr. Wang but failed. His supervisor repeatedly moved him to different positions. No matter where he worked, he tried his best to do the job well and received very positive performance reviews. Some of the local residents said that he provided the best service to them and was always friendly to them.

When Mr. Wang worked at a police station inside a tourist site, many of the staff members’ families often entered the park without purchasing tickets. Mr. Wang always bought the tickets for his family, and some of his co-workers said he was foolish and wasted the money.

In March 2018, Mr. Wang was transferred to work night shifts at a detention centre. He developed swelling in his lower body. He had tightness in his chest and was unable to fall asleep.

He was hospitalised for half a month and discharged after the swelling subsided. Shortly after he returned home, his hands began to involuntarily shake again, and his vision became blurred. He persisted in doing Falun Gong exercises, and his condition disappeared.

Mr. Wang had chest tightness and swelling again in December 2018. He continued practicing Falun Gong and returned to work a month later.

Entering 2021, Liu Hanbo, the head of Xinbin Police Department, began another round of efforts to fire Mr. Wang. The agency’s leadership, as well as officials of Xinbin County Discipline Inspection Commission and Xinbin County Party Committee, all talked to Ms. Wang in an attempt to pressure him to resign on his own initiative.

When Mr. Wang wrote to them about the illegality of the persecution, they accused him of “promoting Falun Gong.” They got the local domestic security office police to intimidate him. He was not deterred and talked to the domestic security office about Falun Gong. As he refused to quit his job, Liu eventually fired him.

 

82-year-old Retired Professor Arrested and Interrogated

Mr. Gu Jiushou, an 82-year-old retired Chongqing University professor, talked to people about Falun Gong at a bus station on November 9, 2021. He also urged people to quit the Chinese Communist Party to avoid becoming accomplices in the crimes it has committed.

After someone agreed to quit the Communist Party, Mr. Gu left the bus station and went to a local job fair to talk to people there about Falun Gong. Shortly after he arrived, seven officers surrounded him. They claimed that he’d been reported for promoting Falun Gong and demanded to search his bag. Mr. Gu refused to comply and shouted “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good” in protest.

The police dragged him to their car and handcuffed him. They also rolled up his down jacket and its inner layers and ripped off his belt. At the police station, they had him sit on a metal chair.

That afternoon, Mr. Gu asked to use the restroom. Because his pants kept falling down without his belt, the officer who went with him had to hold up his pants for him. The officer initially refused to open his handcuffs but later relented. He handcuffed Mr. Gu again after he finished using the restroom and kept him handcuffed until 8 p.m. after he was taken to the interrogation room.

The police demanded to know Mr. Gu’s name and the names of his two sons and where he got the Falun Gong materials found in his bag. He didn’t say anything.

The police called Mr. Gu’s sons at around 10 p.m. and asked them to pick him up. The police gave him 15 days of detention but didn’t enforce it.

Before letting him go, the police measured Mr. Gu’s height and took front, left, and right side photos of him. He was exhausted and his sons had to hold him up as they walked out of the police station.

 

Financial Persecution

In addition to the above-mentioned incarceration and torture, some practitioners were also subjected to financial persecution, including suspension of their salaries or pension, or having their valuable confiscated by the police during home-raids.

Ms. Zhang Chunhe, a 62-year-old former accountant in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, was arrested at home at 8 p.m. on April 10, 2021, after the police deceived her into opening the door by claiming that she needed to do a coronavirus test. The police ransacked Ms. Zhang’s home. Her Falun Gong books, computer, MP3, flash-drive, cellphone and tablet were confiscated. Another 80,000 USD she kept at home was also gone after the raid.

 

Ms. Ge Ling, a 71-year-old retired pharmacist in Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province, has spent 12 of the past two decades in prisons and forced labor camps for practicing Falun Gong. She suffered relentless torture and became disabled as a result.

On April 20, 2021, one year after Ms. Ge was released from serving a four-year term, the local Yongxiu County Human Resources and Social Insurance Bureau informed her former employer, the Yongxiu County Chinese Medicine Hospital, that they planned to suspend her pension and medical insurance, as well as seek the return of the 270,741 yuan in pension funds issued to her from October 2014 to April 2021.

The Social Insurance Bureau cited a policy saying that Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned for their faith are not entitled to pension funds while serving time, but it didn’t explain why it didn’t suspend her pension during her imprisonment or why it was trying to recall the pension funds issued to her from October 2014 to April 2021, when her latest imprisonment was from April 2016 to April 2020. Additionally, the policy was issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, not enacted by any law-making bodies in China.

Ms. Ge went to the Yongxiu County commissioners, the county government officials, and her former employer to appeal the decision, but to no avail. As the pension was her only source of income, she is left in a destitute situation. Most of the clothes she wears now were donated by her former coworkers, and she relies on leftover food from others.

 

A middle school teacher in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, Ms. Miao Yuhuan, has had her salary suspended for a year. She struggles to make ends meet, while taking care of the elderly at home and their daughter, who is attending middle school. She twice requested that the school reinstate her pay, but to no avail. Her husband, Mr. Zhang Jun, who works for the same school, is still detained for his shared faith.

 

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