70 Year Old Practitioner Mr. Zheng Zhong Dies As A Result of Being Detained Five Times and Forced Into Homelessness

Summary

Retired cadre Mr. Zheng Zhong, from the Hubei Province Huanggang City Foreign Trade Department, recovered from many serious illnesses after he started practising Falun Gong. Since the persecution started in 1999, he had been steadfast in his practice and as a result was detained five times. He had to leave home in October 2002 to avoid further persecution. After suffering many hardships, while he was away from home for a long time, Zheng Zhong died on March 9, 2004.

Background

Mr. Zheng Zhong, 70 years old, was a retired cadre of the foreign trade department in Huanggang City, Hubei Province. Before 1996, he had very serious illnesses such as pleurisy, pulmonary tuberculosis, hypertension and others. He was hospitalized twice because of strokes, and depended on intravenous injections for a long time to stay alive. After Zheng Zhong started practising Falun Gong, all his illnesses disappeared. He became healthy mentally and physically, and improved his moral character. He had not needed to take any medication for more than seven years, and saved a lot of medical expenses for the company.

Because of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin's regime, the Huangzhou police detained Zheng Zhong in the detention centre five times in succession. Once, he was detained for 70 days beyond the original sentence. In October 2002, the police destroyed a Dafa truth-clarification material production site, so Zheng Zhong and his wife had to leave home to avoid further persecution. The police and "610 Office" (1) personnel monitored and followed Zheng Zhong's two sons for a long time. They also tapped their phone, and harrassed and threatened his daughter-in-law and her parents. Due to the hardship of being away from home for a long time, Falun Gong practitioner Zheng Zhong died on March 9, 2004.

(1) "610 Office": a bureau specifically created by the Chinese government to persecute Falun Gong. It has absolute power over each level of administration in the Party, as well as over the political and judiciary branches.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/3/13/69743.html