Crimes of Feng Shaohui, Director and Party Secretary of the Hebei Department of Justice, in Persecuting Falun Gong

Title or Position

May 2012 – July 2012: deputy secretary of Langfang Municipal Committee of Chinese Communist Party
July 2012 – February 2013: deputy secretary of the Langfang Municipal Party Committee, principal of Communist Party College
February 2013 – April 2013: deputy secretary of the Langfang Municipal Party Committee, deputy mayor, acting mayor, and Principal of Communist Party College
April 2013 – September 2013: deputy secretary of Langfang Municipal Party Committee, mayor, and principal Communist Party College
September 2013 – June 2016: deputy secretary of Langfang Municipal Party Committee and mayor
June 2016 – July 2016: secretary of the Langfang Municipal Party Committee and mayor
July 2016 – October 2020: secretary of the Langfang Municipal Party Committee
November 2020 – December 2022: secretary of the Party Committee of the Hebei Provincial Department of Justice
January 2023 – Present: secretary of the Party Committee and director of the Department of Justice of Hebei Province, first secretary of the Party Committee and first political commissar of the Provincial Prison Administration Bureau (under the CCP system, prisons and lawyers are under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Department of Justice)

 

Major Crimes

Feng Shaohui served as deputy secretary and secretary of the Langfang Municipal Party Committee and deputy mayor and mayor of Langfang City from February 2013 to October 2020 and has served as Party committee secretary and director of the Hebei Provincial Department of Justice from November 2020 to the present.

Over the years, Feng actively implemented the CCP’s policy to persecute Falun Gong, resulting in a large number of practitioners being arrested, harassed, sentenced, and tortured in prison. Many were persecuted to death.

From November 2020 to October 2023 when Feng served as head of the Hebei Provincial Department of Justice, at least 8 practitioners in Hebei Province were tortured to death in prison or died shortly after returning home. They were Ms. Li Guibin, Mr. Wang Jian, Mr. Gao Zhencai, Mr. Lai Zhiqiang, Mr. Yang Zhixiong, Mr. Han Junde, Mr. Bai Xingguo, and Mr. Pan Yingshun.

This report includes incidents of persecution during Feng’s tenure as Party secretary and director of the Hebei Provincial Department of Justice.

 

Selected Death Cases

1. 80-year-old Woman in Critical Condition While Imprisoned, Dies Days After Being Released on Medical Parole

Ms. Li Guibin of Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, was sentenced to four years at the age of 76 for practicing Falun Gong. In mid-April 2023, two years after she was taken to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison, her son was informed by the prison that she was dying. He rushed to the prison and took her to a hospital in Shijiazhuang (where the prison is located) after the prison agreed to release her on medical parole.

After two days of treatment, Ms. Li was taken home (about 370 miles from Shijiazhuang) and admitted to a local hospital. She died shortly after on April 16. She was 80. According to someone who saw her body, she was merely skin and bones after two years of imprisonment.

2. Family Suspects Foul Play in 72-year-old Man’s Sudden Death in Jidong Prison

Mr. Wang Jian of Zunhua City, Hebei Province, was arrested at home on July 6, 2019, and later sentenced to seven years in prison with a 5,000-yuan fine. He was still in good health when he had a physical exam on March 2, 2023. He also appeared to be fine and in good spirits when his family visited him on March 19. However, the family received a surprise phone call from the prison on April 3 with the news of his death. He was 72 years old.

Mr. Wang had large areas of deep bruises around his ears and on his back, as well as some bruises on the back of his right hand. There was a circular mark on his chest and some scratches on his back. When the coroner turned his body over, fluid came out of his left ear.

The prison claimed that Mr. Wang died suddenly of illness, but without specifying what it was. They asked the family to provide proof of low income, as they intended to offer them a financial subsidy of between 8,000 and 10,000 yuan.

To the family, the bruises on Mr. Wang’s head and back seemed unusual and not caused by a normal illness. They asked if they were caused by torture or other mistreatment that the prison was trying to hide.

3. Husband and Wife Pass Away Three Months Apart

When Mr. Gao Zhencai was released on January 2, 2023, after serving a 3.5-year term for his faith in Falun Gong, he was emaciated, nearly blind, and incapacitated. His wife, Ms. Xu Suqin, was not home to greet him, as she had passed away a month earlier due to the mental distress of the persecution. Mr. Gao died less than two months later on February 26. He was 71 years old.

Mr. Gao of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was arrested at home on July 3, 2019, and sentenced to 3.5 years on November 11, 2020. Because Ms. Xu and their daughter frequented the police station to seek justice for Mr. Gao, the police and residential committee staff members constantly harassed them and ordered Ms. Xu to sign statements renouncing Falun Gong. When she refused to comply, the police attempted to force her daughter, who doesn’t practice Falun Gong, to sign them on her behalf.

In addition to the harassment, the authorities also instigated Ms. Xu’s neighbors to monitor her. Sometimes they followed her when she went out. When her friends came to visit her and bring her food, her neighbors would go over and warn her that her friends were no longer allowed to visit.

Due to the mental distress, Ms. Xu began to suffer persistent fever and systemic edema. She gradually lost the ability to care for herself and passed away in mid-November 2022.

4. In a Vegetative State and Denied Medical Parole for Two Years, Hebei Man Dies Two Months Before Prison Release

Mr. Lai Zhiqiang’s wife waited seven long years, eager to reunite with him, only to learn on January 3, 2023, that he had died two months before his scheduled release from serving a wrongful term for his faith in Falun Gong.

According to Mr. Lai’s wife, who wasn’t allowed to see his body until the next day, he was curled up and his face had been injured. Five guards held her back to keep her from getting close to or touching him. They refused to return his body to the family and deceived his daughter into signing a consent form to have his body cremated.

Mr. Lai of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was arrested on March 31, 2016, and secretly sentenced to seven years. His elderly mother was so traumatised that she passed away shortly after.

Mr. Lai suffered a stroke in 2019 from being tortured in custody, but the prison denied his family’s multiple requests to visit him. When his wife was finally granted a visit in January 2020, she was heartbroken to see that the guards had to carry him out. He could hardly move. He didn’t appear to recognise her and didn’t respond when she cried.

According to an insider, Mr. Lai was held in the prison clinic for nearly six months and was force-fed every day. The guards kept the feeding tube in his stomach. His lips became very dry and cracked. Some of the nurses occasionally used a towel to drip some water into his mouth. He often had tears in his eyes when they did that. He also moved his lips but couldn’t speak.

Mr. Lai’s family demanded medical parole for him, but the prison claimed that they had to wait for their superiors to make the decision. Meanwhile, they charged the family several thousand yuan, claiming it was needed to pay Mr. Lai’s medical bills.

Mr. Lai’s condition further deteriorated in 2020, and he contracted a lung infection in August 2020. He was in a vegetative state and had difficulty breathing. When the prison took him to the hospital, the doctor did a tracheotomy on him but nothing else. The doctor implied that there was not much hope for him to recover.

Despite Mr. Lai’s condition, the prison always kept him shackled with heavy chains. He was taken back to the prison after over a month in the hospital only to be taken back to the hospital on September 9, 2020, even before his trachea was closed.

Mr. Lai’s family kept applying for medical parole for him. The prison claimed that the justice bureau had denied the request. When his family went to the justice bureau themselves to submit the request, they were stopped at the door and not allowed to talk to anyone.

5. Hebei Man Dies in Prison Hospital 16 Months after Being Jailed for His Faith

Mr. Yang Zhixiong was arrested on September 26, 2019, and sentenced to 6.5 years in prison on December 1, 2020. His appeal was denied and he was taken to the Jidong No. 5 Prison around April 2021. Sixteen months after he was transferred to the Jidong No. 5 Prison, he passed away on August 10, 2022, in the hospital affiliated with the prison. He was 58 years old.

According to Mr. Yang’s family, when they saw his body at the Tangshan Union Hospital, he was emaciated and his eyes and mouth were wide open.

Mr. Yang had fallen into a coma due to myeloma (cancer of the plasma cells) on June 30, 2022, but the guards waited two days before taking him to the hospital. Prior to that, he had often complained of pain in his back and legs.

Mr. Yang was held in the intensive care unit for nearly 40 days, between July 2 and August 10, and visits from his family were restricted. The guards also kept him handcuffed and shackled. A guard told his family after his passing that if Mr. Yang had renounced Falun Gong, they wouldn’t have treated him like that.

6. Critically Ill Man, 77, Denied Medical Parole While Serving 8.5 Years, Dies Months Later

The Jidong No. 5 Prison in Hebei Province notified Mr. Han Junde’s family on April 14, 2022, that the Baoding City, Hebei Province, man had passed away at 10:35 a.m. that day.

Mr. Han died less than three years after he was admitted to the prison to serve an 8.5-year term for making gourd crafts with “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” carved on them.

After Mr. Han was taken to the prison, the guards repeatedly ordered him to plead guilty and renounce Falun Gong. Because he refused to comply, they took away his rights to see, call, or write to his family.

Mr. Han’s family later learned that he had developed severe anemia due to the abuse in prison. He became blind in one eye and had to be wheeled around in a wheelchair in prison. The family had applied for medical parole for him, but the Jingxiu District Justice Bureau denied their application, even after the doctor determined that he qualified.

Mr. Han was hospitalised around early 2022 after becoming critically ill. He was wearing a drainage tube after he was discharged. He was taken to the hospital again on April 5, 2022. He was unable to breathe on his own and was put on a ventilator. He passed away nine days later.

 

Suppressing and Obstructing Lawyers from Defending Falun Gong Practitioners

The Hebei Provincial Department of Justice, which oversees the province’s bar association, issued a secret order prohibiting local lawyers from representing Falun Gong practitioners. If they do, their license will be revoked or not renewed. As a result, local lawyers did not dare to take Falun Gong cases again. But the suppression doesn’t stop with local lawyers. When lawyers from Beijing are hired to represent Falun Gong practitioners, they face the same intimidation.

A lawyer in Beijing filed several complaints against the prosecutors and judges in Shijiazhuang City for wrongfully sentencing Falun Gong practitioners. In 2022, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Justice Bureau issued a notice prohibiting local law firms from working with this Beijing lawyer and not allowing local courts to accept any materials from this Beijing lawyer. The lawyer can’t represent Falun Gong practitioners anymore.

In May 2023, another lawyer in Beijing was hired by Ms. Ju Yuxia to enter a not guilty plea for her. The Ningjin Court in Xingtai City, Hebei Province, and the local Justice Bureau, sent an official letter to the Beijing Justice Bureau, requesting it to pressure the law firm that lawyer worked for. The lawyer was forced to drop Ms. Ju’s case.