Jilin Man Dies as a Result of Brutal Torture and Police Intimidation for Upholding His Faith

After enduring two decades of persecution for upholding his faith in Falun Gong, Mr. Sun Qunying, a Liuhe County, Jilin Province resident, passed away on October 8, 2020. He was 63.

Mr. Sun took up Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, an ancient spiritual discipline, in 1997. After the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of the practice in July 1999, he was arrested multiple times and given two forced labor terms for a total of five years and one prison term of three years and six months.

Mr. Sun was first arrested around April 2000. The police extorted 3,000 yuan from him. He was arrested again in June 2000 and given two years of forced labor after one month of detention.

Due to a health condition, Mr. Sun was released on medical parole around September 2001, only to be taken back into custody at Chaoyanggou Forced Labor Camp three months later, on December 29, 2001.

On April 6, 2002, the labor camp guards launched a “transformation” campaign in an attempt to force the 400 Falun Gong practitioners detained there to give up their faith. Those who refused to write the statements renouncing Falun Gong were shocked with electric batons and beaten with bamboo boards.

Because Mr. Sun refused to renounce his belief, the guards ordered six inmates to beat him. His lower body, from his back to his feet, was covered with bruises. The inmates exerted so much force that the metal tube they used to beat Mr. Sun was bent. They then scraped his leg with a sharp part of the bent tube, leaving a long cut on his leg. Despite the heavy bleeding, the guards refused to bandage it and forced him to sit on a small stool for a prolonged period to torture him further. A guard surnamed Chen said they did that for Mr. Sun’s “own benefit.”

Unable to bear the brutal torture, Mr. Sun was forced to sign the statement renouncing Falun Gong against his will. He was transferred to a regular ward, the 4th Ward, the next day.

Feeling deeply remorseful and regretful for signing the statement, Mr. Sun submitted a notice on May 13 to formally declare that his renouncing statement was void. The guards were infuriated by his decision.

Four guards beat him and slapped him in the face. They tied and handcuffed his hands, they stripped him down to his underwear and shoved his head between two rungs of a ladder, rendering him unable to move. Then they beat him with rubber belts and electric batons. After hours of beating, Mr. Sun had injuries all over his body. He vomited blood and passed out. He was forced by the guards to write another statement, apologizing for his declaration, and read it in front of other inmates.

On another occasion, the guards beat Mr. Sun in the middle of the night. His nose bled. He was dazed and unable to walk.

From then on, every time the guards beat him and forced him to write thought reports, he wrote “Falun Dafa is good” instead. Every time he wrote that, the guards extended his term by 20 days. His term was extended for a total of 218 days altogether.

When Mr. Sun's family came on August 18, 2003 to take him home, he was beyond recognition–he was emaciated; his face was pale and full of scars; his vision was severely impaired; and his legs were so weak that he had difficulty walking.

Despite his physical condition, the police didn’t stop persecuting Mr. Sun. On May 9, 2004, they harassed him and attempted to force him to sign a statement renouncing Falun Gong again. Although Mr. Sun escaped, he was arrested when he returned home in the evening. The police ransacked his place and confiscated his Falun Gong books and photo of Falun Gong’s founder. He was detained at the Liuhe County Detention Center for an unknown period of time. According to available information on Minghui.org, he hadn’t been released by March 2005.

It is unclear when Mr. Sun was given a second forced labor term of more than two years.

Mr. Sun was arrested again around 7: 30 p.m. on July 15, 2016. The police ransacked his home and confiscated his Falun Gong books and six sets of satellite dishes he was helping install for people to receive uncensored news from overseas media. The police put him on criminal detention at the Liuhe County Detention Center later that day.

On July 16, he was taken to the hospital for a physical examination, only to be diagnosed with high blood pressure and a heart condition. He was released on bail on July 28 after his family paid an unknown amount of bail bond. The Liuhe County Procuratorate approved his arrest the day after his release.

Mr. Sun appeared in court on March 24, 2017 and was sentenced to 3.5 years on June 20, with 3,000-yuan fine. Due to his life-threatening high blood pressure, the court approved his family’s request to let him serve time at home.

During his term, the police kept coming to harass him. In November 2019, with only two months remaining on his term, the police came and took him for a physical checkup. Jiang Hui, the head of Domestic Security Division, claimed that the time he'd served at home didn’t count and he still had to serve time in prison.

The harassment and intimidation left Mr. Sun deeply traumatized. His health steadily deteriorated. He began to have trouble walking and couldn’t see clearly. He was sent to the hospital for resuscitation after having a cerebral hemorrhage on October 7, 2020 and passed away around 5 p.m. the next day.