Ninety-Year-Old Mother Blind from Grief

The woman in the photos is over 90 years old. Her son Mr. Zhang Xinzi was sentenced to a seven-year prison sentence three years ago, for being a Falun Gong practitioner. His Mother cries every day, as she misses her son. She has since gone blind during her grief and stress. Her family has not told her that her son was given a seven-year sentence, and worries that she will not be able to handle the news. The elderly woman sits in front of the entrance to their home every day waiting for her son to come home.

Mr. Zhang is a resident of Yangci Village, Wanggang Town, Xishui County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province. He owned a small agricultural transport and acquisitions business, and has a very good reputation among locals. Mr. Zhang has many years of driving experience, and his vision was excellent.

Mr. Zhang was arrested by officers from the Xishui Political and Legal Affairs Committee and the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) on August 3rd, 2010, and was sent to a forced labour camp for one year. In detention, he was beaten by police multiple times, which severely affected his eyesight, resulting in him becoming blind.

He was then sentenced to a seven-year prison term, and jailed in the Fifth Ward of Shayang Prison in Hubei Province. A police officer named Guo Jianli from Xishui Police Department shouted, "No one can support his children, no one is taking care of his parents, and his family is breaking up. That's want I want!" During the arrest Mr. Zhang and Mr. Zhang's wife begged Guo Jianli to release Mr. Zhang.

Mr. Zhang's wife took the bus to Shayang Prison to visit him on June 7th, 2013. When she finally saw her husband she was shocked by the changes in him. Over the three years in which she had not seen him her husband had changed from being a tall, strong man, to a skinny man with two deep concaves in his face. His hair had changed from black to white, and he looked like he had aged ten years. Mr. Zhang's wife could not bear it. Upon seeing her husband this way she burst into tears, and almost collapsed in grief.

The entrance into Mr. Zhang's village is by way of a small bridge. Due to poor road conditions, the bridge has no railings, and traffic accidents happens frequently. Mr. Zhang's home is close to the junction. Every time outsiders have an accident, the first reaction of older residents living nearby was to call Mr. Zhang for help, as the young and strong people from the village all worked outside the village. When the traffic police didn't come to handle these accidents, Mr. Zhang took those with minor injuries to his home to take care of them. Mr. Zhang used his small tricycle to carry people with serious injuries to the hospital for treatment.

Local villagers were impressed by one incident when a couple riding a motorcycle crashed into a poplar tree in front of the bridge. The wife fell into a coma, and her husband lay on the ground, groaning in pain.

Bystanders were shocked at this scene, but no one dared to go and help them, as the moral standard inside China has declined rapidly, and people are afraid they will get themselves into trouble even if they want to help the injured.

Mr. Zhang pulled up his small tricycle and took the two injured people on the back of the tricycle to the local county hospital. The two persons were saved after Zhang 's timely rescue.

Many local villagers are angry that Mr. Zhang was arrested and being persecuted. They said, “The Chinese Communist Party arrests such a good person. The Communist Party is very bad.”