A Mother Recounts a Young Man’s Tragic Death and Injustice Suffered for His Belief

“My heart broke into a thousand pieces when I saw his body lying there,” Ms. Ren Canru paused. “But I held myself together the best I could.”

“His eyes were still half-open. I gently brushed his eyelids to close them. I touched his cold forehead and pulled on his stiff hand.” Ms. Ren, a mother who lost her only son almost two decades ago relived her worse nightmare that still haunts her to this day.

“I almost passed out when I saw his right leg—it was all black from the knee down. There was a spot the size of my palm on his calf and a spot the size of my thumb on the inside of his foot, where the skin and flesh were gone and bones were exposed. His entire leg had withered to a dry stick. That was not at all the son I remembered.”

Ms. Ren had not seen her son, Mr. Yuan Jiang, for almost a year before he died. She knew about his arrest in August for practicing Falun Gong, but had no idea about his recent escape from detention, where he was brutally tortured.

The last time she saw him was before she and her husband left for Beijing to petition the central government in December 2000 regarding the persecution of their shared faith. Both were arrested and detained. When Ms. Ren was released in early summer 2001 after a five-month detention, she had just missed Mr. Yuan, who had left town to avoid being arrested.

Then news of his arrest came in late August 2001. Ms. Ren and her husband found out where Mr. Yuan was detained and tried a few times to visit, but were never allowed inside. She just wanted to give him some warm clothes, as the days were getting colder in their city of Lanzhou in the northwest region of China.

She also worried about his safety, knowing that Falun Gong practitioners, especially the unyielding ones, were routinely tortured and mistreated in detention centers. She knew her son too well—he’d never waver in his faith. That phone call on the morning of November 9 did not come as a surprise.

After hanging up, she hurried to a local practitioner’s home as asked, but hesitated before she went into the room. There he was, her beloved son, lying dead. He was only 29 years old, a promising young man who still had the best of his life to live.

Mr. Yuan, Ms. Ren, and their family’s tragic experience of arbitrary arrest, detention, torture, and death was not unique. Similar ordeals happened to hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and their families across China, since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned the spiritual practice in July 1999 and launched a ruthless persecution targeting its followers.

As the coordinator and main contact person of three northwest provinces’ assistant centers, Mr. Yuan’s arrest and death attracted a lot of attention from the local authorities. Many local practitioners were implicated, including his parents and those who had helped him.

Mr. Yuan Jiang’s Story
Mr. Yuan’s family is originally from Dengkou County in Inner Mongolia. The youngest of four and the only boy, Mr. Yuan was born on August 24, 1972, in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, to parents who are both teachers. His father, Professor Yuan Zhuguo, was the chair of the Physics Department at the Northwest Normal University. His mother Ms. Ren Canru taught at the university’s affiliated elementary school.

Mr. Yuan was weak and sickly as a child. He was diagnosed with inflammation of the heart muscles and inflammation of the voice box in high school and had to take a year off. After returning as a junior, he participated in the Sixth Annual National Physics Competition and placed fifth in Gansu Province. He graduated high school in 1990 and was accepted to the nation’s most prestigious university, Qinghua University, to study Electronic Engineering.

Despite his great academic achievement, Mr. Yuan remained physically weak during his first few years in college. He also picked up the bad habits of smoking and drinking during that time.

Discovering Extraordinary Science
Mr. Yuan first heard about Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, in 1993. By chance, he attended a seminar held by the founder Mr. Li Hongzhi in Dalian City and became a practitioner. He soon stopped smoking and drinking and all his illnesses were gone. Healthy and energetic, he was changed from the core.

Mr. Yuan was convinced that Falun Gong’s principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the true teachings of the Buddha Fa. It is an orthodox cultivation way that inspires people to be kind. It is an extraordinary science. Mr. Yuan followed Master Li Hongzhi to different cities in the following months and attended five of his seminars.

Falun Gong gave him wisdom and elevated his moral character. Besides practicing himself, Mr. Yuan also spread the word about the practice and helped many people at Qinghua University get started.

A practitioner who also attended Qinghua in the early 90s recalled, “A professor who attended Master Li’s seminar in Harbin started the exercise site on campus. Yuan Jiang, who had attended quite a few of Master’s seminars, was among the first ones to regularly participate in the group exercise.

“We gathered every morning at a different location on campus, sometimes in front of the auditorium, or near the Jinchun Garden pond, or in front of the National Southwestern Associated University (Lianda) Memorial. We also got together every night at the administration office to watch videotapes or listen to audiotapes of Master teaching the Fa.”

A Career with the Lanzhou Telecommunication Bureau
Mr. Yuan graduated from Qinghua University in the summer of 1995 and moved back home for a great opportunity with the Lanzhou Telecommunication Bureau. A kind and sincere young man who was always happy to lend a helping hand, Mr. Yuan’s popularity grew among co-workers. His outstanding performance also earned him recognition from his supervisors and respect from peers at the tech department.

Mr. Yuan became the company’s go-to person for all technology-related problems and computer issues. Cellphones were not common in the 90s and most people used pagers. He always answered his pager messages even when he was off work. He just walked to a public phone in his neighborhood to call back and always answered questions in detail and patiently.

When the Lanzhou Telecommunication Bureau expanded their business in 1999 and started an affiliated company, the Feitian Wangjing Information Industry Ltd., Mr. Yuan became the obvious choice for the position of deputy general manager and Chief Technology Officer.

Group Exercise Site at the Northwest Normal University
Soon after he moved back to his hometown Lanzhou, Mr. Yuan started doing the exercises at the Northwest Normal University every morning. At first it was just himself. Gradually, more and more people joined him.

Mr. Yuan gave back to his hometown with his hard work and technological expertise. He also led others in creating a spiritual pure land in the northwest of China. In two short years, the university exercise site that started with just Mr. Yuan himself now regularly saw tens of thousands of people every morning.

Many new exercise sites sprung up all around the city. People gathered in parks and plazas each morning to do the exercises together. In the light of the morning sun, the peaceful practitioners made gentle movements along with the beautiful music of Falun Gong. These groups made up quite a spectacular and beautiful scenery in Lanzhou, the “Golden City.”

Without promotion nor advertisement, the practice of Falun Gong spread by word of mouth. Its miraculous healing power and effectiveness in elevating the moral character of society as a whole contributed to it becoming so widespread and quickly gaining a large fellowship.

The number of practitioners in the northwestern region increased rapidly in the late 90s. To better help new practitioners and coordinate across the exercise sites, Mr. Yuan founded the volunteer assistance centers in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province, then in Xi’ning and Yinchuan, the capitals of neighboring Qinghai and Ningxia Province respectively. Mr. Yuan became the coordinator and contact person for all three centers.

Though Falun Gong workshops are free of charge, printing materials and renting space for these workshops are costly. Practitioners who helped at the assistance centers not only volunteered their time, but they also contributed by donating money. As a white-collar young professional living a simple life, Mr. Yuan donated considerable funds to the centers every year.

When Gansu Daily, the largest newspaper in the province, published an article in July 1998 slandering Falun Gong, Mr. Yuan went to the headquarters in person and shared with the editors and reporters his own experience of benefiting from the practice. His story and sincerity deeply touched the newspaper staff, who changed their attitude toward the practice and later published an apology in the paper.

Mr. Yuan also helped organize province-wide conferences for new and veteran practitioners to come together to share their cultivation experiences. The third annual sharing conference was held at the Lanzhou Gymnasium in June 1998. Many practitioners shared their stories and even the venue staff and security team sat down to listen.

Nearly ten thousand attended this conference and it all went smoothly and orderly, without any pushing or shouting. The practitioners left the venue cleaner than when they started. The staff was touched, “We’ve never seen such a nice group. You guys are welcome to come again.”

Mr. Yuan’s Parents Started Practicing Falun Gong
After witnessing their son’s dramatic change both physically and mentally, Mr. Yuan’s parents knew that Falun Gong is a good practice.

Ms. Ren at the time suffered from heart disease and a liver problem. Although she had undergone two major surgeries, the symptoms recurred every winter, sometimes even required hospitalization. Shortly after she took up the practice, however, all her illnesses were gone.

Mr. Yuan’s father had cirrhosis, late-stage scarring of the liver, and had taken countless medications but nothing helped. His immune system was weak and he got sick easily. He had to wear a hat even during the summer and couldn’t eat anything cold or he’d get sick. After he also started practicing Falun Gong, his health quickly improved and he looked like a completely different person.

Although they have gone through many tribulations throughout history, the hard-working and kind people of China have never lost their spiritual connection with the divine and have always believed in being good. Like a beacon of light, Falun Gong, with its deep roots into the ancient wisdom, lighted up the province of Gansu, the home to the Thousand Buddha Caves, and rekindled a hope in people. Falun Gong’s miraculous power in healing and fitness attracted a big fellowship in the northwest region. As the practitioners’ understanding of its teachings deepened, their morals elevated and their outlook in life changed for the better.

The Persecution Began
The Gansu Daily’s publication of the article smearing Falun Gong in 1998 was not an isolated incident. As the practice gained more popularity, it also attracted attention from the central government. Some senior officials saw the spiritual discipline based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance as a threat. All publication of Falun Gong books was banned in 1996 and various news outlets started criticizing the practice. But none of it stopped the group from growing. It’s estimated that by 1999, there were nearly 100 million people practicing Falun Gong in China.

The sheer number of practitioners touched a nerve in Jiang Zemin, the then head of the CCP who soon launched a nationwide persecution in July 1999 against Falun Gong. A large-scaled arrest took place on July 20 and all local coordinators down to the county level were arrested.

Mr. Yuan and seven others, including Mr. Ge Junying, Mr. Yu Jinfang, and Mr. Li Mingyi from Lanzhou City were arrested that morning. They were taken to the Renmin Hotel and Hongtudi Hotel in Lanzhou and detained for six months.

Mr. Yuan had been gone for a business trip to Dunhuang City since July 11. When he didn’t return on the 21st as planned, his family contacted his work. His supervisor deceived his parents that he had gone to another city for business, knowing that Mr. Yuan had already come back from his business trip, but was taken from his rental place early in the morning on the 20th by officer Li Peican and Lu Zhibin from Lanzhou Police Department.

An entire floor of the Renmin Hotel was dedicated to detaining Falun Gong practitioners. Each practitioner was placed in a separate room and monitored around the clock. Their families were not notified and not allowed to visit. Mr. Yuan was put through six months of intense brainwashing until he was released on bail on January 20, 2000. For the next six months, he was ordered to report to the city police department once a week.

Colluding with the city police department, the branch of the 610 Office (an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong) at his company suspended Mr. Yuan from work in January 2001. He was again detained and put through another round of brainwashing. Mr. Yuan decided to leave town to avoid further harassment and arbitrary detention.

Mr. Yuan made the nation’s most-wanted list. Lanzhou Police Department and his work sent a team to look for him in Beijing, in Guangzhou, in his father’s hometown in Inner Mongolia, and even at his cousin’s place in a small mountain village. Ms. Ren recalled, “The police often harassed my family after he left, trying to find out where he was.”

Arrested and Tortured
While on the run, Mr. Yuan gave up the idea of finding a job with his professional knowledge. Living a very frugal life, he connected with other practitioners and worked to expose the Communist regime’s lies slandering Falun Gong.

As a way to prevent practitioners from traveling to Beijing to petition the government, many practitioners’ identification cards were confiscated. Check points were set up along major highways and long-distance buses and trains were routinely combed through, where all passengers had to show their ID cards. Many practitioners traveling without an ID had been identified this way while trying to purchase a ticket or board a train.

On August 30, 2001, a bus in Dunhuang City was stopped and the police started checking the passengers’ ID cards one by one. Mr. Yuan was on board and without an ID. He had left his hometown of Lanzhou early in the year to avoid being arrested.

The police became suspicious when Mr. Yuan couldn’t show an ID. It didn’t take them long to identify him as one of the Falun Gong fugitives and arrested him. The search was said to have been directly ordered by the Ministry of Public Security in Beijing to hopefully intercept more than a dozen practitioners who might be taking that route to go to Xinjiang Province.

The Gansu Public Security Bureau quickly put together a case against Mr. Yuan and a special committee was set up to find all practitioners connected to him across the three northwest provinces. These officials saw a great political opportunity to move up to higher-ranking positions and advance their careers. One of the officials on the committee later revealed that Mr. Yuan was hung up and severely beaten after the arrest in Dunhuang.

He was then taken to Siergou Detention Center in the Xigu District in Lanzhou. Mr. Yuan was believed to have been put in solitary confinement at first but eventually moved out of it after he protested. His family, however, was not notified of the location of his detention.

“We tried to find my son’s whereabouts,” Ms. Ren recalled. “When we went to Siergou Detention Center, the guards told us he was not detained there. We then went to Xiguoyuan Detention Center but couldn’t find him there either, so we went back to Siergou and eventually found out he was in Division No. 4. It was already mid-October when we finally figured it out.”

“Officer Wang Jixu from the Lanzhou Police Department was in charge of my son’s case. When I told the guards I was going to bring my son some warm clothes, Wang said he had to call his supervisor. His supervisor must have asked who it was on the phone, because Wang said, ‘it seemed like his mother.’ Then I was told the supervisor gave the okay for me to bring some clothes. We went back to the detention center a few times with clothes and food but were never allowed to see my son.”

The members of the special committee soon discovered this seemingly gentle and frail young man had a will of steel. When the usual interrogation routine didn’t get him to talk, they figured they needed more equipment and a bigger space to inflict more pain on him. The Public Security Bureau pressured administrators at Mr. Yuan’s work, the Telecommunications Bureau, to find them a more “suitable” place.

Bowing to police demands, the Telecommunications Bureau made available the Hongyan Garden it owned behind Baitashan Mountain. The garden is located five miles from the downtown area, surrounded by mountains covered with mature trees. The weather was getting cold and there were fewer visitors to the area, making it an ideal place for torture sessions. The police quickly moved Mr. Yuan there, taking with them two truckloads of torture devices.

The police were not shy about applying all kinds of torture methods on Mr. Yuan. It is revealed later that he was cuffed in a spread eagle position with his hands and legs opened as wide as possible. The police tried to make him confess that he was the main coordinator of the five provinces in the northwestern region but he never said a word.

The police then cuffed his hands to the radiator in a way that he couldn’t squat nor stand up all the way. Being cuffed in this awkward position for a long period of time caused an unimaginable amount of pain. According to an insider, although Mr. Yuan seemed weak, the toughness he showed earned him the respect of the police officers.

Escape and a City-wide Search
By some miraculous chance, Mr. Yuan got out of the handcuffs and shackles early in the morning on October 29, 2001, while all the guards were sleeping. He got through a few doors and walked right out of the building.

From inside the courtyard, the fence didn’t seem that high. But when he took a leap, Mr. Yuan found the ground on the outside much lower, typical of the fences in the mountain areas. He fell down and broke his lower leg. Not being able to walk, Mr. Yuan crawled a distance until he found a man-made dirt cave.

Having sustained injuries both externally and internally and having been on a hunger strike, Mr. Yuan was extremely weak and passed out. Going in and out of consciousness, he later recalled hearing people walking and talking outside of the cave, as well as sirens in the distance.

In the next few days, sirens could be heard all over Lanzhou City. A city-wide search was being carried out by two thousand police officers after Mr. Yuan’s escape. All major intersections, transportation hubs, and stations were blocked off. Local practitioners’ homes were searched. The harassment forced a practitioner in his 60’s to jump out of the window of his fourth-floor home and injured his lower back and leg.

The search was quickly extended to include all neighboring counties, city and towns. An order came from the higher-ups to “dig the ground three inches deep to find Yuan Jiang.”

Checkpoints were set up at major roads and intersections. Cars could only enter the city but were not allowed to leave. The police combed through all hotels and motels in the region. People wondered, “So many resources went into a search for a Falun Gong practitioner? We didn’t see such a big stir when the felon who murdered four people escaped.”

A Short Rest Before Death
“As soon as my son escaped, officer Lu Zhibin and a few others came knocking. They came in and looked around but didn’t tell us anything. When my husband asked him how my son was doing, he changed the subject and didn’t respond directly. When I went to the market, an officer jumped out of a police car parked near our building. He asked me where I was going and told me to not go too far and don’t spend too much time outside.”

Mr. Yuan spent three days and four nights in the dirt cave. He went into the farms nearby at night to get a few turnips to hold him over. It was late fall. The mornings and nights were already very cold in the northwest region, with temperatures sometimes below the freezing point. Mr. Yuan still wore the thin layer of clothes he had on when he was arrested in August. He was emaciated, hungry, and in a lot of pain.

It was very quiet outside of the cave on the fourth morning, November 3. Mr. Yuan crawled until he found a stick to support himself and made his way to the main road. A kind taxi driver gave him a ride to a local practitioner, Mr. Wang Zhijun’s home in the Xigu District.

Mr. Wang was startled by the person standing at his door. He had bruises and swollen lumps all over his face with blood still coming out of his mouth and nose. His hair was messy and covered with filth. His shirt was shredded with withered turnip leaves hanging from the chest pocket and his legs were skin and bones and dark purple in color from the knee down.

Mr. Wang was in shock when this man said, “I am Yuan Jiang.” He couldn’t hold his tears back—what kind of hell must his friend have gone through to look like this?

Mr. Wang pulled himself together, went downstairs and paid the taxi driver. He called Mr. Yu Jinfang and a few other local practitioners to discuss how to care for and protect Mr. Yuan.

The search for Mr. Yuan had not stopped. Mr. Yuan didn’t have an ID card which means no hospital could admit him and to be honest, the practitioners were afraid of the hospital turning Mr. Yuan into the police if they did. They decided to transfer him to Mr. Yu Jinfang’s daughter’s home to care for him.

The many torture sessions Mr. Yuan endured had caused severe internal injuries. Blood kept coming out of his mouth and nose. He floated in and out of consciousness in the next few days.

In the afternoon of November 8 the swelling on Mr. Yuan’s leg went down. At around 1 o’clock after midnight, he fell asleep. He slept soundly and didn’t toss and turn like he did the previous nights. Those who cared for him left the room. Nobody wanted to disturb him—he had been so tired.

Mr. Yuan passed away peacefully in his sleep that night. This young man endured unimaginable torture to uphold his faith and the truth.

Ms. Ren’s Account
“We picked up my youngest daughter at the train station at around 9 p.m. on November 8. When the practitioners called early in the morning the next day, I thought it was my son-in-law. I didn’t pick up and neither did my daughter. When they called again, I answered and was told to go to a practitioner’s home.

“I knew something was up. When I saw the practitioner, the look on his face, I knew something happened. He led me to the room my son slept in. When I saw him, I almost passed out. This cannot be the son I have missed so much.

“He was reduced to skin and bones and I could barely recognize him. His eyes were still slightly open and blood was coming out of his mouth and nose. My mind went blank and tears streamed down my face. The pain was overwhelming.

“My heart broke into a thousand pieces, but I held myself together the best I could. I gently brushed his eyelids to close them. I touched his cold forehead and pulled on his stiff hand.

“I almost passed out again when I saw his right leg—it was all black from the knee down. There was a spot the size of my palm on his calf and a spot the size of my thumb on the inside of his foot where the skin and flesh were gone and bones were exposed. His entire leg had withered to a dry stick. That was not at all the son I remembered.”

Ms. Ren went home and shared the news with her husband. The poor man just didn’t know how to deal with it. Ms. Ren had never seen him so hurt.

However, the couple couldn’t let their daughter find out. They had just picked up their youngest daughter who was visiting from out of the country. She and Mr. Yuan had always been very close and she would be devastated. The couple pretended that nothing happened. They entertained their daughter until she left without saying a word about her younger brother’s death.

The daughter eventually found out about Mr. Yuan’s death on the Minghui website. She just couldn’t believe it.

Mr. Yuan was his father’s favorite and his pride. Professor Yuan isolated himself from others after his son’s death. For years, he rarely spoke and often cried out loud when he was alone. Professor Yuan never recovered from grief until he passed away in January 2011. He didn’t say anything before he died and passed away quietly after lying in bed for two days.

To avoid endless harassment by the police, Ms. Ren informed Mr. Yuan’s supervisor about his death. The company administrators and police officers from the Lanzhou Police department took Mr. Yuan’s body.

The cashmere sweater and jacket that Ms. Ren took to the detention center never made it to Mr. Yuan. He was still in a pair of lightweight pants and two thin layers of shirts until the day he died.

II. Ms. Ren and Professor Yuan’s Story
When the persecution started in July 1999, Ms. Ren and Professor Yuan went to Beijing to petition the central government. They wanted to tell the government that Falun Gong is good and being wronged. However, both were detained for nine days in November 2000 at the Anning Police Station.

Ms. Ren went to Beijing again in late December 2000 and was arrested and escorted back to Lanzhou City. She was detained at the Anning Police Station for two weeks before being transferred to the Lanzhou No. 1 Detention Center, where she was held for five months. When she was released in early June 2001, she found out that Mr. Yuan had left town to avoid being arrested.

Professor Yuan spent a few months living on his own while his son was on the run and his wife still was detained. To keep him from going to Beijing again, the university he worked at sent staff members to monitor him. The school administration even tried to get him to stay at a designated location. When that failed, they arranged for a staff member to move in and monitor him around the clock. Professor Yuan protested, “I am not a criminal. You can’t treat me like this.”

In late August 2001, the couple learned about Mr. Yuan’s arrest on a bus in Dunhuang City. They were worried. After figuring out where Mr. Yuan was detained, the couple went to Siergou Detention Center a few times but were not allowed to see their son.

Ms. Ren found out in late October that Mr. Yuan was transferred to the Hongyan Garden. She visited Mr. Yuan’s supervisor, hoping to find a way to get some warm clothes and food to her son. Director Shi Ming told her, “He hasn’t said a word since the arrest. Stop sending him food.” Judging from Shi’s words, Ms. Ren knew Mr. Yuan was likely on a hunger strike.

After Mr. Yuan’s escape, a police car parked near his parents’ building and the couple was monitored around the clock. Ms. Ren was questioned whenever she left the building and was told to “not go too far, hurry back.”

After collecting Mr. Yuan’s body, the police took his parents to a building at the Normal University and tried to figure out how they found out about Mr. Yuan’s death.

Ms. Ren recalled, “Officer Lu Zhibin forced me to write a statement saying we don’t request an autopsy of the body. But I learned later an autopsy was performed without our permission. We were held at the university all night until the next morning”

“We were monitored and often followed when we went out. My oldest daughter has lived overseas for more than twenty years but despite her repeatedly inviting us to visit, we haven’t been able to obtain the necessary travel documents. Our right to visit our daughter is taken away because of our belief.”

“Retired employees of the university have received monthly subsidies since March 2001. It has increased from 150 to 230 yuan, then to 600, and is now 900 yuan. But we have been given none.”

A stranger visited the couple at home the day after Mr. Yuan’s death. He introduced himself as Professor Yuan’s former student who was now a journalist and told Ms. Ren that his wife also practiced Falun Gong. He asked Ms. Ren to tell him what happened in detail so he could write an article and send it to the Minghui website.

Ms. Ren thanked him but turned down the offer. When Professor Yuan came out of the bedroom, this stranger who claimed to be a former student didn’t recognize his teacher.

Deputy Manager Li from Mr. Yuan’s work came to visit later that afternoon. After checking through the peephole, Ms. Ren opened the door. However, Li didn’t come alone. Five men dressed in the same outfit barged in right after Li.

“It was almost 6 o’clock in the afternoon. Officer Lu Zhibin from the Lanzhou Police Department and a team head came in with Li. The team head brought a gang of people over later that night. With a camcorder pointed at us, we were asked again about how we found out about our son’s death and what happened. Someone was also taking notes with pen and paper. A group of total strangers, both men and women, were brought in for an identification procedure.”

On the day Mr. Yuan’s body was cremated, Officer Wang Jixu brought several strangers who stood across the street from the crematorium and pointed at Ms. Ren to identify her.

A police officer was later sent to Siergou Detention Center and told all detainees who shared a cell with Mr. Yuan that, “Yuan Jiang was never detained here,” threatening them to never reveal the truth.

III. What Happened to Those Who Helped Mr. Yuan
After Mr. Yuan’s death, Lanzhou Police Department Domestic Security Division carried out a large scale search and arrest. The practitioners who helped Mr. Yuan after his escape were arrested one by one.

Officer Lu Zhibin led a dozen others to break into Mr. Yu Jinfang’s home on November 11, 2001. Without a warrant, they arrested Mr. Yu, his wife Ms. Xia Fuying, his non-practitioner daughter, son-in-law, and even their nanny. The young couple’s home was sequestered.

Mr. Yu was taken to the Yuzhong County Detention Center. Ms. Xia was released after two days, but their daughter and son-in-law were detained for three days and fined 1,000 yuan. Even then, they had no access to their own home until six months later.

Mr. Yu Jinfang and his wife Ms. Xia Fuying
Mr. Yu was physically abused at the Yuzhong County Detention Center. His family was notified two weeks later that he had been admitted to the Dashaping Forced Labor Rehabilitation Center and Hospital in Lanzhou City due to gastrointestinal bleeding. What they didn’t tell the family was that Mr. Yu went on a hunger strike to protest the arrest and was tied to a metal bed for four days straight.

When Mr. Yu was discharged from the hospital a few months later in April 2002, his family was asked to pay 4,000 yuan in medical expenses. His daughters chipped in and covered half of it and his workplace loaned the rest to his wife Ms. Xia and took a monthly payment from her paycheck.

After being discharged from the hospital, Mr. Yu was detained at the Dashaping Detention Center in Lanzhou City.

Mr. Yu Jinfang, his wife Ms. Xia Fuying, and Mr. Wang Zhijun were sentenced in early December 2002 without a public hearing.

Officer He Bo from the Lanzhou Police Department Division No. 16 and five others broke into Mr. Yu Jinfang and Ms. Xia Fuying’s daughter’s home in November 2003, arrested Ms. Xia and held her at the Lanzhou No. 2 Detention Center.

A few days later, Mr. Yu Jinfang was sentenced to five years in prison, his wife Ms. Xia Fuying three years, and Mr. Wang Zhijun five years.

Lanzhou practitioner Mr. Wen Shixue was arrested in Shijiazhuang City in Hebei Province in February 2002 for posting a Dafa banner. After escorting him back, police from Lanzhou Police Department Domestic Security Division fabricated evidence against him, lumped his case into Mr. Yuan’s case, and sentenced him to eight and a half years in prison.

Mr. Yu Jinfang’s Death
Mr. Yu was made to sleep on a damp and shady spot on the floor in prison which caused a skin rash called scabies that covered his entire body. These scabies often had blood and pus oozing out. Mr. Yu developed a high fever and became bedridden. He couldn’t eat or drink and was in critical condition.

The prison clinic notified his daughter. After his daughter paid 2,000 yuan in March 2003 to Dashaping Forced Labor Rehabilitation Center and Hospital, Mr. Yu was released on medical parole. He was in such bad shape that he was carried out of the detention center. However, in less than a month, he was taken back to the detention center. After the family’s repeated pleading and an additional payment of 4,000 yuan, he was again hospitalized.

Mr. Yu was physically and verbally abused during his five-year imprisonment until he was released in November 2006. He was emaciated, couldn’t eat much and often threw up. According to Mr. Yu himself, he started having these symptoms two months before his release. His wife Ms. Xia, who was released three days before he was, asked him, “Don’t you have anything to say to me?” He smiled but didn’t say anything.

Mr. Yu’s health continued to decline daily. He couldn’t eat anything at all and vomited more and more frequently. Twelve days after his release, Mr. Yu passed away a little after 6 p.m. on November 25, 2006.

IV. Conclusion
The 20-year persecution against Falun Gong not only caused pain and suffering to hundreds of thousands of innocent followers of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” and their families, it also involved many CCP officials and law enforcement in unpardonable crimes.

Many evildoers have received retribution for what they have done and Ma Xili, the Gansu provincial deputy secretary of the CCP, also head of the Cult Preventive and Instruction Task Force was an example.

Ma was the highest-ranking official in Gansu Province in charge of persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. His wife died in 2003. His only son who was a high-ranking official at the Department of the Treasury died of liver cancer the following year. His daughter-in-law took away the grandchild. Ma’s daughter was severely injured in a car accident and became a vegetable. Ma himself was removed from his position in October 2006.

Those who associated with Ma also received retributions. Director Han Jianfei of the Gansu 610 Office who worked under Ma was imprisoned. President Shi Xingguang of the Gansu Daily, a newspaper that ran propaganda pieces slandering Falun Gong, was killed by a security guard at home.

The regimes that persecuted righteous beliefs in history all ended up destroying themselves in the process. This persecution campaign against Falun Gong also completely exposed the CCP’s evil nature of “deceit, evil, and struggle.”

From the propaganda and lies that fill the state-run media to the common practice of brainwashing and torture, from arbitrary arrest and detention to illegal sentences of forced labor and imprisonment, from open suppression and persecution to secret harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners to supply a lucrative organ transplant operation, the CCP is destroying the morality of humankind.

To uphold truth and expose the vicious lies of the communist regime, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners like Mr. Yuan made tremendous sacrifices. Future generations will deeply respect and admire these anonymous heroes who’ve endured the unimaginable to awaken people's consciences.