Guangdong Woman, 78, Dies Weeks After She Was Sent to Brainwashing Centre

Ms. Xu Huizhu’s family and friends lost contact with her in late July 2016. They tried to visit her in August, only to discover her dead body. It appeared that she had been dead for days.

It was later confirmed that the 78-year-old retired teacher in Guangzhou City had been arrested and sent to Huangpu Brainwashing Centre in July. Ms. Xu was targeted because she had filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for ordering the persecution of Falun Gong that resulted in her repeated detentions in the past.

Another local Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Wu Yangzhen, who was sent to the same brainwashing center in November 2016, revealed what she had heard from a staff member named Xu Shaoqi.

Xu pointed to a bed and said to Ms. Wu, “Xu Huizhu slept on this bed when she was here. She died a few days after she was released.”

Ms. Xu used to suffer from poor health and had to wear a winter jacket in the summer. Her health dramatically improved not long after she took up the practice of Falun Gong in 1996.

Having had firsthand experience with Falun Gong, Ms. Xu never wavered in her faith after the persecution began in 1999. The local police arrested her multiple times and kept her at the same brainwashing center and other facilities for various lengths of time.

Ms. Xu was first arrested and sent to the brainwashing centre in 2001. She was arrested again three years later.

Her relatives reported her missing in September 2012 and soon realized that the police had arrested her and ransacked her home. She was again sent to the brainwashing centre. The staff there released her two weeks later.

Ms. Xu filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin in July 2015, only to be arrested two months later. Officers pinched her arms so hard that her skin turned blue. They also hit her with water bottles and threatened to harvest her organs if she refused to sign their prepared statements. She wasn’t released until December 25, 2015. The police then had three people shadow her on a daily basis.

Ms. Xu was arrested and sent to the brainwashing centre in February 2016. Though she was released one month later, the police took her back to the centre in July.

This brainwashing center is housed in the building of Guangzhou Tianlu Equestrian Club. Ms. Li Xiaolin, a maths professor at Guangzhou University, was persecuted to death there on June 28, 2002, less than 24 hours after her arrest.

Background
In 1999, Jiang Zemin, as head of the Chinese Communist Party, overrode other Politburo standing committee members and launched the violent suppression of Falun Gong.

The persecution has led to the deaths of many Falun Gong practitioners in the past 16 years. More have been tortured for their belief and even killed for their organs. Jiang Zemin is directly responsible for the inception and continuation of the brutal persecution.

Under his personal direction, the Chinese Communist Party established an extralegal security organ, the “610 Office,” on June 10, 1999. The organization overrides police forces and the judicial system in carrying out Jiang's directive regarding Falun Gong: to ruin their reputations, cut off their financial resources, and destroy them physically.

Chinese law allows for citizens to be plaintiffs in criminal cases, and many practitioners are now exercising that right to file criminal complaints against the former dictator.