Former CCP Official Dies After Two Decades of Persecution for Her Faith

It was recently confirmed by Minghui.org that a Qian’an City, Hebei Province resident passed away on January 8, 2019, after suffering two decades of persecution for her faith in Falun Gong. She was 78.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since July 1999.

Ms. Fan Huiying, the former deputy chairwoman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference of Qian'an City, Hebei Province, had her ID confiscated in July 1999, merely days after the persecution began. She was later arrested multiple times for practising Falun Gong and almost died from force-feedings.

Both of Ms. Fan’s grown children live overseas. They invited her to visit them abroad, but her passport application was denied because of her faith. Her pension and other fringe benefits were stopped in February 2001 and were never reinstated. The withheld amount totalled up to one million yuan.

When Ms. Fan became too weak to look after herself as a result of the persecution, her children hired two housemaids to help her. Since their mum was not allowed to join them overseas, they had to go back to China to visit her as often as they could. The situation put them under enormous pressure, which took a heavy toll both mentally and financially.

Ms. Fan’s suffering is just one of the millions of persecution cases against Falun Gong practitioners in China. Below is her own account given in April 2015 of her experience with practising Falun Gong, and what she had been through during the persecution.

Ailments Disappear after I Begin Practising Falun Gong
I used to suffer from many illnesses, including severe gastritis, chronic colitis, and nephritis. No medical treatments worked and my conditions were getting worse. My life was miserable.

I was very fortunate to be introduced to Falun Gong in 1997. Soon afterwards, the illnesses that had been torturing me for over 20 years disappeared and I felt like I was given a new life.

Because I refused to give up Falun Gong after the onset of the persecution, I was repeatedly harassed and my house was ransacked numerous times between 2001 and 2004.

I was taken to brainwashing sessions and locked up in detention centres. I was humiliated and maltreated. The guards force-fed me three times and I almost died.

Tortured in a Brainwashing Centre
In mid-January 2001, the director at my workplace asked me if I still practised Falun Gong. After I said yes, they sent me to a brainwashing centre. I was not allowed to go out and no family visits were permitted. At night, we were locked in a room and not allowed to use the toilet.

The guards charged 1,000 yuan from each practitioner to cover the food cost, but they never provided us with enough food. They beat and verbally abused us constantly, or slapped us in the face as they pleased.

We were forced to do “military training,” including running for long hours with sandbags on our back, standing still or squatting for extended periods of time.

When our legs became swollen and we had difficulty walking, they lifted our feet and forced us to crawl on the ground with our hands. They called it “pushing a cart.”

Force-fed at the Detention Centre
After about one month of torture at the brainwashing centre, I was taken to Qian'an Detention Centre around the Chinese New Year, with the charge of “disturbing social stability,” a common pretext used against Falun Gong practitioners in China.

It was very cold and snowing. The guards took away my warm clothes and shoes and did not give me any blanket to sleep in. With the freezing temperature in northern China, I was shivering every night.

In the summer, because the detention centre was overcrowded, we were forced to sleep on the floor. My head was next to the toilet and my arms were covered with mosquito bites.

The deputy head of the detention centre once slapped the back of my hands with a plastic shoe sole. My hands became swollen and turned black and blue. He also handcuffed me to the window in the hallway for days. I could not take showers or change clothes.

I went on a hunger strike to protest the arbitrary detention and was force-fed three times.

In May 2001, on the eighth day into my hunger strike, the detention centre guards decided to force-feed me. I was held down on a wooden board by eight armed policemen. Four medical staff inserted a tube into my stomach through my nostril and left it there overnight. It was very painful.

They force-fed me again two months later. Like the first time, I was held down by a number of armed policemen. I twisted my body to resist and threw up all that was forced into my stomach. I became very weak and the police, fearing that I might die in the detention centre, released me.

My throat was itchy and I kept coughing, feeling very weak all over.

Twenty days later, the police came and took me back to the detention centre.

In October 2001, the police instigated female criminals to body-search Falun Gong practitioners. Many of us were dragged around and beaten up. We started another round of hunger strike.

In the evening on the eighth day of our hunger strike, I was carried out by two male inmates. One of them said, “This old woman does not even weigh 30 kgs (I was 166 cm in height).”

They dumped me on a wooden board and two medical staff forced my mouth open with a pair of pliers. My lips were cut and my teeth became loose. They wanted to insert the tube through my mouth this time, but I clenched my teeth hard and they could not open my mouth. So they inserted the tube through my nostril again.

For some reason, they could not get the tube into my stomach this time, so they pushed the tube in my right nostril randomly. It was extremely painful and dark blood ran out of my nose. I was dying.

In the evening of the ninth day of my hunger strike, I was released as the guards were concerned that I might die in the detention centre.

Financial Persecution
After I got back home, the police continued to harass me and searched my house numerous times. They also went to Beijing twice to harass my son's family, eventually forcing him to quit his job and move abroad.

In 2007, on the second day of the CCP’s 17th National Congress, I was arrested again and detained for 25 days. The police confiscated my computer, my Falun Gong book and other personal belongings.

As my pension had been stopped since February 2001, I found Lei Qin, the chairman of the Political Consultative Conference of Qian'an City and demanded that they reinstate my pension. I was given the run-around between different agencies, but still failed to get my pension back.

I filed complaints to the central government and the Supreme Procuratorate in Beijing, but still to no avail.