Practitioner Mr. Zhao Baosheng Persecuted to Death, His Wife and Children Left to Struggle Without Him

Name: Zhao Baosheng
Gender: Male
Age: 48
Address: Qinghe County, Hebei Province
Occupation: Businessman

Date of Death: November 3rd, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: November 17th, 2001
City: Qinghe County
Province: Hebei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, brutal beatings, extortion, home ransacking, electric shock, cold water dousing in frigid weather, brainwashing, hands cuffed from behind, brutal force-feeding

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Zhao Baosheng from Qinghe County, Hebei Province was once a millionaire in the cashmere business. He has been detained and persecuted seven times by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His body and mind were greatly damaged by the persecution, before he died on November 3rd, 2011 at age 48. His wife and children now struggle to live on without him.

Zhao Baosheng's wife has been arrested eight times. They were once a very happy family, but that all changed when the persecution began. Their elderly parents must stay with other relatives out of safety concerns.

Zhao Baosheng and his wife were from Gexianzhuang Village, Qinghe County. They started to cultivate Falun Gong in 1999. They both experienced wonderful benefits from Falun Gong , physically and mentally. After Zhao Baosheng started to cultivate Falun Gong, his high moral standard and good virtue gained him great respect from his neighbours and business associates alike. When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong and he was arrested and held at the detention centre, many of his neighbours went to visit him. Other businessmen even went to the detention centre to discuss business and sign contracts with him.

When the CCP started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Zhao Baosheng and his wife went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on the eve of the Chinese New Year in 1999. They were arrested by the local police, detained for over 50 days, brutally beaten, and had 30,000 yuan¹ extorted from them before they were released.

At every holiday and Chinese New Year, he was a target of persecution. They came to his home to arrest him in the middle of the night, and often ransacked his home.

On December 29th, 2000, Zhao Baosheng went to Beijing to appeal against the persecution of Falun Gong and display banners. He was arrested and detained at the Shaling Police Branch, Shunyi County Police Department, Beijing. Five police beat him severely, disabling his arm. They tortured him in many ways. In the bitter cold of winter, the police ripped off his shirt and handcuffed him to the wall outdoors. They poured cold water on him and used an electric baton to beat him. They also used a big electric baton to shock his genitals many times. They handcuffed his hands to two separate chairs so that he could not squat down. Then the police used an electric baton, rubber stick and police baton to torture him continuously for over four hours (from 6 p.m. until past 10 p.m. at night).

Then Zhao Baosheng was sent back to the local detention centre by police from Qinghe County. In the detention centre, his pure and kind actions moved the prisoners who were near him. After he was injured from torture, the prisoners lifted his arms to help him practice the exercises. Then the CCP personnel from Qinghe County sent him to the Hebei Province Brainwashing Centre. He did not have any money or extra clothes, and wore only shorts and a vest. His two teenage children walked a few hundred kilometres from Qinghe County to Shijiazhuang City to visit him. It was difficult for them to find the brainwashing centre. When they arrived and requested to see their father, they were turned away. The police gave them the excuse that it was not a visitation day. With tears in their eyes and grief in their hearts, they were turned away and had to leave. Though it was cold and Zhao Baosheng did not have any extra clothes, no CCP personnel in the brainwashing centre cared. He did not receive any other clothing until other practitioners who were released from the brainwashing centre were kind enough to send some to him.

Time passed and not only would the brainwashing centre not release him, they sent him to the Handan Forced Labour Camp. Since he had already lost the ability to do forced labour work due to the persecution, the forced labour camp refused to accept him. After he was extorted 6,000 yuan, he was released and allowed to go back home.

On the evening of November 17th, 2001, around 6 p.m., the Qinghe County Police Station chief Liu Jiangong led a group of police to break into Zhao Baosheng's home. They ordered the couple to go to the police station, but they refused. Liu Jiangong called the Qinghe County CCP Politics and Security Section Head, Liu Bao'an, who ordered police officers to forcibly take the couple from their home. Even their children tried to stop the police, but they were also beaten. The children suffered both physically and mentally throughout the persecution of their parents. Without proper legal procedures, the police detained the couple at the Qinghe County Detention Centre. Inside the detention centre, the directors Xu and Ruan ordered the prisoners to forcibly put the prisoners' clothing on Zhao Baosheng and take photos of him. Zhao Baosheng firmly refused to cooperate with them and was brutally beaten.

Zhao Baosheng was detained for 47 days and went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution during those 47 days. The police handcuffed him from behind for 16 days, without any care whether he lived or died. On January 20th, 2002, when the police removed the handcuffs, Zhao Baosheng's wrists were noticeably damaged, the palms were discoloured and swollen. He could not feel anything and people were afraid to even look at his hands. After two months on a hunger strike, the police inserted a tube into his mouth to force-feed him. They did this seven times, causing him to bleed several times. Chief Zhu Zengxin incited the prisoners to feed him very hot soup that would obviously burn him, and then cold water to shock his stomach. While handcuffed behind the back, police left the feeding tube inside his stomach and did not remove it. The handcuffs dug into his flesh. The food that police forcibly fed could not be digested. His lips became very dry. In order to avoid responsibility, the detention centre sent him to the hospital. When the doctor discovered that the tube had been left in his body for 18 days, he knew that it would be stuck to his stomach and was afraid to pull it out. Later the CCP personnel saw that Zhao Baosheng's life was in great danger and were afraid that he might die inside the detention centre, so they notified Zhao Baosheng's family members to come pick him up and take him home.

Zhao Baosheng had weighed over 198 pounds. When he was released, he weighted a mere 132 pounds. His wrists still clearly showed scars where he had been handcuffed. After he was released, the CCP's Politics and Security section head Liu Bao'an from Qinghe County still directed the police to continue harassing him at home, and the home and where his parents were living as well.

On the night of February 22nd, 2005, after 8 p.m., CCP official Zhao Mouwen from the Xingtai District came to Qinghe County. He and Chen Shuyuan from the police department led dozens of police to break into Zhao Baosheng's house and ransack his home. The police forcibly took away the telephone, their children's mobile phones and Falun Gong books. They also arrested Zhao Baosheng and his wife, and detained them at the police department.

Zhao Baosheng was severely injured physically and mentally during the seven times that he was detained and persecuted. This caused great hardships in his life for him and his family. On November 3rd, 2011, Zhao Baosheng died at the age of 48.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.