How Fifty-Three Year Old Ms. Zhang Xiuxian Was Tortured to Death

Ms. Zhang Xiuxian, 53, was a Falun Gong practitioner from Laishui County, Hebei Province. She had been frequently sick since she was very young. She suffered from asthma since age three. Every year she had to be hospitalized several times. Each time she got ill, the suffering was so intense that she felt like she was dying. Even though she traveled around to see many doctors, the illness had not been cured. Furthermore, her husband passed away when their children were very young. For Ms. Zhang, each day of life was full of suffering.

Ms. Zhang learned Falun Gong in 1994. After practising Falun Gong, she gradually recovered from all her illnesses. She seemed to become a different person. She easily took care of her family and the farm by herself. She could never have imagined this, even in her dreams. Falun Gong gave her a whole new life. Her relatives witnessed the miracle that happened to her and also started practising Falun Gong.

But the cruel persecution instigated by Jiang Zemin caused Ms. Zhang to suffer unbelievable torture that eventually cost her life.

On July 22, 1999, practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong were detained in a conference room at Laishui County Police Department. Ms. Zhang Xiuxian and about a hundred other Falun Gong practitioners went to the county government to appeal. They asked the government to release the detained practitioners immediately. But she was handcuffed by police and detained in the county detention centre.

In August 1999, the government of Laishui Town held a brainwashing session in the town middle school to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Ms. Zhang Xiuxian refused to give up her belief in Falun Dafa, and she was illegally. She was threatened, brutally beaten, and suffered other physical punishments from officials.

Ms. Zhang Xiuxian was detained in the conference room on the third floor of the town government building for a long time. On October 1, 1999, Hu Yuxiang and Liu Zhenfu sent her to the county brainwashing centre. This brainwashing centre consisted of a police department, a courthouse, and a procuratorate. Ms. Zhang Xiuxian suffered inhuman torture there. They tortured her using all possible means. They forced her to run, jump with one leg, threw her into a trash field or a dunghill, forced her climb a tree or gnaw the tree, and tortured her with the so-called "Carrying a Sword on the Back" (1). The handcuffs cut into her flesh and could not be loosened. She was hit in the face with the bottoms of their shoes. Her face became black and disfigured, and her body was covered with blood. When the brainwashing session was over, she had 500 Yuan extorted from her (2). Then Hu Yuxiang and Liu Zhenfu brought her back to the town government. She was detained for more than 20 additional days before she was allowed to return home.

In March 2000, during the Chinese People's Congress, the officials arrested local practitioners because they were afraid that the practitioners would go to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. On April 6, Liu Zhenfu and his followers abducted Ms. Zhang Xiuxian, and took her to the Communist Party School of Laishui County. To protest the illegal detention she started a hunger strike, but she was cruelly beaten by Sun Guijie (the vice secretary of the county Communist Party). Sun Guijie slapped her face with the bottom of his shoe. Her face was swollen, had clear marks from the shoe, and her mouth was bleeding. Because she refused to watch the videotape slandering Falun Gong, the director of Laishui Town beat and kicked her so badly that she vomited blood continuously. The town officials were afraid to take the responsibility and sent her back home.

On July 1, 2000, the town officials were afraid that Ms. Zhang would go to Beijing to appeal again so they arrested her and detained her in the local government building. She started another hunger strike to protest. The officials sent her back home and asked her parents to persuade her to eat. The officials were going to bring her back to the government building and continue the persecution after she started eating. With no other choice, Ms. Zhang left her home. But, the town government made all their employees and the policemen from the local police station search for her. They besieged her village and finally found her. Her father could not take the persecution and fear any longer, and passed away not long after this. Hu Yuxiang and Liu Zhenfu secured the building, blocked the information, and didn't let her go to the funeral or meet with her relatives or anyone else. They locked her in a room and didn't even allow her to use the washroom.

In September 2000, Jia Yongbo (the new secretary of the town Communist Party) and Liu Zhenfu beat her up again. Then, they brought her to the police department to continue the persecution. When she was suffering the cruel torture she continually told the truth about Falun Dafa to them. But Jia Yongbo and Liu Zhenfu didn't listen to her kind advice. They sent her and three other Falun Gong practitioners to the Detention Center of Laishui County, and detained her there for about eleven months. They even paraded the practitioners through the streets with humiliating signs hanging on their necks, and held open court sessions to sentence the practitioners in the Club Square of Laishui County.

On March 5, 2001, the Communist Party School of Laishui County held another brainwashing session to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. They sent Ms. Zhang Xiuxian and other practitioners detained in the county detention centre to the brainwashing session. There, practitioners started a group hunger strike to ask for immediate release. Sun Guijie (vice secretary of the county Communist Party) and Liu Haili (director of the county Political and Judiciary Committee) were ordered to hand the practitioners over to the town where their home was located. Jia Yongbo sent people to monitor the five practitioners from Laishui Town. Neither the guards nor the county officials gave any food to the practitioners. Ms. Zhang Xiuxian left the brainwashing centre and became homeless to avoid further persecution.

The officials from the town and the county went to her home and her relatives' home many times, and tried to arrest her. Because there was nobody to take care of her mother in her 80s, Ms. Zhang went back home to take care of her. After finding out that she had returned, the officials from the town went to her home frequently to disturb her. And they even tried to arrest her one more time. Her mother couldn't endure the persecution any longer and vomited blood when they tried to take her away. So Sun Xiuying (the vice secretary of the town Communist Party), Jia Yongbo, and Zhang Zhijun (the director of the village) sent people to monitor her at her home. They sent a lady to stay with her all the time and monitored her, even to the point sleeping with her in the same bed, and a man to stay outside her room all the time.

After being persecuted and tortured again and again, Ms. Zhang became very weak. Her body began to swell up from the torture, and she passed away on June 3, 2002.

Notes:

(1) "Carrying a Sword on the Back" - The practitioner's hands are tied behind his back with one hand over the shoulder and the other hand against the lower back. The police then apply a great deal of force to pull the two hands toward one another and handcuff the two hands together.

(2) Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/8/23/82417.html