15 Years of Callous Brutality: A Look Back at 445 Confirmed Beating Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners

Mr. Xuan Chengxi, a 61-year-old farmer from Shandong, was beaten to death a few hours after he was arrested on October 12th, 2000. At the Yuhe County government building, 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) personnel and police officers took turns beating him. When Mr. Xuan lost consciousness, they poured cold water on him to wake him up before continuing to beat him until he passed away.

Mr. Xuan Chengxi

Without notifying his family, officials cremated his body. They then told his family that he died from a heart attack and accused him of “colluding with overseas influences and intending to overthrow the government.”

A 19-year-old Jilin practitioner, Ms. Zhao Jing, was arrested on November 23rd, 2000 on her way to Beijing to petition the government to stop persecuting Falun Gong. She died soon after being beaten at a detention centre.

According to a report by Radio Free Asia, her father “saw many marks of beatings on her body. The local police hurried to cremate her body on the same day and gave him no chance to photograph the body.” Her family later told Minghui that they found two strands of metal wire in her cremated ashes.

Ms. Zhao Jing

Another practitioner beaten to death at the age of 19, Ms. Chu Congrui, was arrested on December 1st, 2000 at Tiananmen Square for protesting the persecution. She died 12 days later at Haidian Prison in Beijing. Her face was deformed, and her body was bloody all over.

Ms. Chu Congrui

Above are three of the 445 Falun Gong practitioners beaten to death for their beliefs in the past 15 years. Deaths from beatings account for 11.7% of the total 3,795 confirmed deaths in the persecution so far.

Falun Gong practitioners have been killed every month since the Communist regime started the persecution on July 20th 1999.

To force practitioners to renounce Falun Gong, the authorities often apply multiple forms of torture at the same time, including beatings, shocking with electric batons, forced-feeding, hanging by the wrists, sleep deprivation, and others. The focus of this article, however, are practitioners who were beaten to death, with either bare hands or tools, including many everyday objects.

Except for 3 of the 445 practitioners, we have location data showing where exactly the beatings took place.

Out of the 442 cases with known location data, 419 practitioners were beaten during arrest or while incarcerated in police stations, detention centres, labour camps, prisons, brainwashing centres, and other extralegal detention facilities.

Many practitioners died while still in custody. For example, among the 109 practitioners beaten at police stations, 77 (70.6%) died before their release.

Five practitioners were beaten while being transferred from one facility to another. Another 18 practitioners were beaten during their arrest, including 11 brutalised in their homes. In total, 23 practitioners died from beatings during transfer or arrest.

In aggregate, 51% of the 445 practitioners died while in police custody.

Among the 445 practitioners beaten to death, the average age was 48.

The five provinces with the highest beating death counts are Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin, all of which are in northeastern China.

Individual Cases

Mr. Li Zaiji's Eyeball Detached After Savage Beating
Mr. Li Zaiji, 44, was the first practitioner beaten to death in Jilin City, Jilin Province. He was arrested on his way to Beijing to petition the government in 1999. Without due process, police sentenced him to one year of forced labour. He died on July 8th, 2000. According to his family, his back was black and purple, and his left temple was sunken in. One of his eyeballs appeared to have been pushed back into its socket and held in place with gauze.

Mr. Li Zaiji

Mr. Wang Bin's Blood Vessels Ruptured
Mr. Wang Bin, 47, a computer engineer, was beaten by four inmates for nearly an hour at Dongfeng Forced Labour Camp in Daqing, Heilongjiang Province on September 27th, 2000. Blood vessels in his neck ruptured. He had several bone fractures, and his body was covered in bruises. He passed away on October 4th after a heart failure.

Mr. Zou Wenzhi's Spine Broken and Organs Damaged
Mr. Zou Wenzhi died at the age of 54 after he was beaten by police officers and security personnel at his workplace on October 16th, 2000. His body was covered with bruises and injuries. The medical examiner confirmed that his spine was broken and that he had severe damage to internal organs, including his heart.

Mr. Zou Wenzhi

Mr. Chen Guibin Thrown into Snow After Savage Beating
Following his arrest in January 2001, Mr. Chen Guibin, 35, was taken to the security office at his workplace and savagely beaten by four security guards. Two bones in his neck were broken, and his body became paralysed. After the beating, the guards threw him outside into the snow for more than an hour.

When he was eventually sent to the hospital, it was too late: he had difficulty breathing, and was suffering from dehydration and an inability to urinate. In extreme pain, he passed away on February 7th, 2001.

Mr. Chen Guibin

Mr. He Xingzong Beaten to Death on the Street
Mr. He Xingzong, 55, was confronted by police on December 8th, 2001 while posting fliers about the persecution of Falun Gong. When he refused to comply with their demands, the officers beat him to death on the spot. The medical examiner concluded that his death was the result of an “accident.” However, while preparing for his funeral, his family found that there were two deep hand prints on his neck, the back of his head was severely injured, and his testicles were crushed.

Mr. He Xingzong

Elderly Practitioner Died After Being Thrown to the Ground and Stomped on by Labour Camp Guards
At Shuangkou Forced Labour Camp in Tianjin, Mr. Chen Baoliang, 66, was beaten to death for criticising the guards for torturing other practitioners. The guards threw him to the ground, jumped up, and stomped on his body. After half an hour of this abuse, Mr. Chen collapsed and passed away within minutes.