The deaths of 3,768 Falun Gong practitioners who died as a direct result of persecution have been confirmed as of June 11th, 2014.
Heilongjiang, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, and Shandong are the nation's provinces with the greatest number of deaths.
In Weifang City alone, a prefecture-level city in central Shandong Province, 109 practitioners were persecuted to death. This represents about one third of the total number of deaths in Shandong and is the nation's highest among prefecture-level cities.
What follows is a summary of the 109 death cases in Weifang City, where the persecution continues to be the most severe in China. At least 20 practitioners were arrested in April and May, according to a recent Minghui summary report.
I. Basic Statistics on the 109 Practitioners
Fifty out of these 109 practitioners were male, 57 were female, and 2 were of unknown gender. Their ages ranged from 26 to 90.
Twenty-six practitioners were government officials, teachers, doctors or factory workers, the rest were either farmers or their profession is unknown.
Seven practitioners were persecuted to death on the day they were arrested. In total, 35 practitioners died during detention, 20 passed away shortly after being released, and 54 practitioners died at home as a result of long-term persecution.
In five families, two members were persecuted to death.
1. Ms. Chen Zixiu Beaten to Death in Four Days
Ms. Chen Zixiu, 58, was the first practitioner beaten to death at the Weifang Brainwashing Centre. Officers in the centre used rubber hoses and electric batons to hit her legs, feet, and lower back. They also used sharpened rods to hit her on the head and neck. Afterwards, she could not stand up and was forced to crawl barefoot through the snow. Her legs were black and blue after two days of torture, and her hair was matted with blood and pus. She passed out from exhaustion and never regained consciousness. She died on February 21st, 2000, only four days after she was taken to the brainwashing centre.
She was covered with bruises. Even her ears were purple. Her teeth were broken. Her legs were badly bruised, and she had a six-inch-long wound on her back from being whipped. Her abdomen was bloated, and her clothes were covered with blood and feces and had been cut into pieces.
After her death was published on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, her daughter Zhang Xueling and several others were arrested, detained, and sentenced to forced labour.
2. Ms. Wu Jingxia Beaten to Death after Two Days in a Brainwashing Centre
Ms. Wu Jingxia, 29, and her 15-month-old son were arrested when she distributing flyers about Falun Gong in early January 2002. She was taken to a local police station on January 17th and handcuffed to a radiator. The next day she was taken to a brainwashing centre in the Kuiwen District of Weifang City, where she was beaten to death on January 19th.
Ms. Wu was still breastfeeding at the time of her arrest. Because she wasn't able to breastfeed her baby for three days, her breasts were engorged with milk. Knowing her breasts were already painful, the police shocked them with electric batons, leaving four or five deep depressions on her chest. After she died, her relatives wanted to change her clothes. As they began, blood flowed from her mouth. One of her thighbones had been broken, and the bones stuck out through her skin. Her lower back and thighs were covered with dark bruises, and here was a red mark around her neck. Her injuries were so horrific that her relatives could not continue.
The perpetrators forced her family members to sign to have her body cremated. Her husband had to leave home with their 15-month-old baby, and her mother was put under surveillance. The authorities forbade her relatives and friends from visiting the family, and even nearby villages were monitored and kept under watch.
3. Mr. Zhang Xinzhong Dead after 10 Days in a Brainwashing Centre
Mr. Zhang Xinzhong, 42, was a high school fine arts teacher. He was taken to a brainwashing centre in July 2004 by Liu Rongyou and Zhao Guangyi and tortured to death within ten days.
His body was cremated on July 18th. When his wife went to the crematory to pay her last respects, Zhang Baoxin and Liu Yourong stopped her. Those who managed to see his body said that his hands and arms were covered with bruises and his face showed obvious signs of attempts to make it look better.
4. Ms. Li Xiumei Suffocated and Her Organs Removed
Ms. Li Xiumei was strangled to death by her brother-in-law, Wang Xingyuan, 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) assistant Li Xingyi, and six other thugs.
On November 3rd, 2005, Wang Xingyuan reported his mother, Ms. Li Wenshu; his elder brother, Mr. Wang Xingjia; and his sister-in-law, Ms. Li Xiumei, who were all Falun Gong practitioners, to the authorities.
610 Office agents detained Ms. Li Xiumei at Li Xingyi's place and instigated Wang Xingyuan and six others to pressure her to give up practicing Falun Gong using torture. They deprived her of sleep, throttled her neck, and used a rolling pin to roll on her body. Ms. Li was strangled to death on November 24th at Li Xingyi's place.
After Ms. Li's family members reported her death to the police, the seven perpetrators were detained in Qingzhou Detention Centre for a short while. However, the 610 Office ensured that they were released to “execute their sentences outside prison.” Furthermore, the doctor who did the autopsy removed Ms. Li's organs, saying he had to “test” them, even though her family did not give their permission. By the time her body was cremated, all her organs had been removed.
To conceal what really happened, the authorities sentenced Ms. Li's husband to two years of forced labour. When he was released on July 31st, 2007, from Shangdong No. 2 Forced Labour Camp, he was picked up and taken directly to the Weifang Brainwashing Centre, where he was told “not to hold hatred” and “not to retaliate.” He was not allowed to go home until almost the New Year. When he did, he learned that, while he was in detention, his son had died at work, supposedly from an explosion, but the real cause of his death remains unknown.
5. Ms. Wang Xiujuan
Thirty-seven-year-old Ms. Wang Xiujuan was beaten to death in a nursing home on January 21st, 2001.
Towards the end of 2000, Ms. Wang went to Beijing for the third time to appeal for Falun Gong. She was arrested, escorted back to her hometown in Changle County, and admitted to a detention centre. She was forced to sit on the concrete floor with her legs stretched out in front of her. Zhao Shijun, head of the local Political and Legal Affairs Committee, stomped on her legs. Many people heard her screams of pain.
When Zhao Shijun got tired, he ordered others to tie Ms. Wang's thumbs behind her back with a nylon rope and hang her up from the window bars. Ms. Wang was detained until early August.
On September 30th, Zhao Shijun arrested and took Ms. Wang, her parents, and a few other practitioners to the local Family Planning Office, where they were detained in separate rooms.
Later they were transferred to a nursing home in the township. They started a hunger strike to protest the detention.
When Ms. Wang's husband, Tang Zonggang, went to visit her, he managed to help her escape, but she was recaptured that afternoon.
The next day, Zhao Shijun, township Party secretary Sun Lanxin, and local militia department head Liu Gaochang beat her to death.
6. Ms. Ma Yanfang
Ms. Ma Yanfang worked for the Zhucheng Ceramics Factory. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in April 2000. She was arrested and taken back to her factory to be detained. When she went on a hunger strike to protest, the authorities at her job put her in a mental hospital, where she was injected with drugs and forced to take other medications. Two months later, she died. She was only 33 years old.
7. Mr. Li Huixi
Mr. Li Huixi, 47, was brought back to the Hou Township Police Station after he went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on April 21st, 2000. He was beaten to death that evening by Wang Shenpeng, head of the township, and Wang Baoguang, head of the police station. His body was cremated the next day. Having lost the only breadwinner in the family, his parents and his mentally retarded younger sister soon passed away.
8. Mr. Zhang Zhiyou
When Mr. Zhang Zhiyou went to Tiananmen Square to appeal for Falun Gong on October 5th, 2000, he was arrested. He died as a result of being tortured while he was being taken back to Weifang. He was only 45 years old.
To be continued.
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