A 61-Year-Old Practitioner Believed to Be Poisoned to Death at a Brainwashing Centre

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:

Name: Ding Wenbin

Gender: Male

Age: 61

Address: Shehong County, Sichuan Provine

Occupation : Pedicab driver

Date of Death: September 16th, 2013

Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 21st, 2013

Most Recent Place of Detention: Suining Brainwashing Centre

City: Suining

Province: Sichuan

Persecution Suffered : Forced labour, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, detention

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Ding Wenbin had been held in the Suning Brainwashing Centre for 30 days, when he was suddenly taken home.

It first appeared that Mr. Ding was okay, but his health drastically deteriorated very suddenly in the ensuing 104 days. He passed away on September 16th, 2013. His family and friends strongly suspect that he was poisoned in the brainwashing centre.

Use of Drugs Sanctioned

Under the policy of Jiang Zemin's [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime to destroy Falun Gong, the use of drugs to practitioners is part of that organized and systematic policy to persecute them and is executed from the top down. The handbook of the so called 'Anti Cult' Internal Reference Material blatantly states, “If necessary, one can use drugs in the clinical trials or medical procedures to 'transform' [forcibly renounce Falun Gong] the subjects.”

Mr. Ding's History

Mr. Ding, 61, was originally a farmer from Shehong County. He later moved to the county centre and made his living driving a pedicab. He began to practise Falun Gong in 2006. He was very frank and open and loved to help people.

Mr. Ding truly appreciated the power of Falun Gong, and wished to tell people his experiences and let them know of the goodness of Falun Gong. He told people the facts about it wherever he went and let them know that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was persecuting the practice.

First Arrest and Forced Labor Sentence

Mr. Ding was arrested by officers from the Chengbei Police Station in Taihe Township when he was distributing informational materials about Falun Gong on the evening of December 29th, 2011. He was sentenced a month later to a year of forced labour and was taken to the Xinhua Forced Labour Camp.

When he was released on November 29th, 2012, he was very weak. His weight had dropped from 120 to about 80 pounds. But he steadfastly believed in Falun Gong and made sure that he did the exercises and read the Falun Gong books. Within about a month, he recovered completely and began to drive his pedicab again.

Final Arrest and Detention in the Brainwashing Centre

He went to the Renhe Township to tell people the facts about Falun Gong on April 21st, 2013. However, someone reported him and he was arrested by Renhe Police Station officers. County domestic security police took him to the detention centre.

After he was detained for 15 days, he was again taken to the Suining Brainwashing Centre. He upheld his belief in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and refused to “transform.” After being held in the brainwashing centre for 30 days, he was taken back to his relatives in Shehong County on June 5th.

Questions Surrounding His Release

After his release, his friends and relatives were curious about what happened to him in the brainwashing center. He told them that he steadfastly rejected attempts to "transform" him, but other than being slapped a few times, he basically did not suffer any bodily abuse.

Although his friends and relatives were relieved and surprised, they could not help but wonder, “The forced labour camps and brainwashing centres usually persecute practitioners so brutally. They are savagely tortured if they do not 'transform.' Why was Mr. Ding an exception, and why did they send him home?”

Deterioration and Death

Just when people were making all sorts of speculations about his situation, Mr. Ding’s condition drastically changed. In the first few days of being home, he felt he was very weak and it was difficult for him to do anything. Gradually he felt that his stomach was congested and achy, and he could not even drink water. Before his relatives and friends could find out what was going on, he died on September 16th, 104 days after his release from the brainwashing centre.

Based on government policy to destroy Falun Gong and the barbaric methods of torture routinely used on practitioners, Mr. Ding’s friends and relatives strongly suspect that he had been drugged in the Suining Brainwashing Centre. Many other incidents lend support to such a suspicion.

Mr. Zhao Tianshou, 66, was a retired official from Panjin City in Liaoning Province. He lived in Taihe Township, Shehong County, which is his hometown. He was arrested by plainclothes officers on August 26th, 2013, when he was distributing Shenyun DVDs [Shen Yun Performing Arts is a New York based company showing traditional Chinese culture through classical dance and music. Some dance pieces in the show depict the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and how they show their compassion under extreme conditions]. He was taken to the Shehong County Police Department and interrogated by Captain Zhou Yi and Vice Captain He Yiping. When he refused to sign or thumbprint the record, the police threatened him, “If you do not sign, we will inject you with 'DNX.'” Mr. Zhao knew that DNX was a drug that harmed the human body and that the guards had been using it openly on practitioners this year. He finally signed the document.

In addition, practitioners Wang Deyi, Zhang Yuxiu and others were all injected with DNX by the police from the Domestic Security Division. All of them suffered severely, and some are still struggling to recover.

This naturally makes people wonder if Mr. Ding’s sudden death might have been caused by unknown drugs.