The Inside Story of the Death of Ms. Dong Cui

There have always been differing accounts of the death of Dong Cui at the Beijing Women's Prison in Daxin County. Ms. Dong Cui (also known as Dong Cuifang) died in March 2003 at the Beijing Women's Prison. The government produced various documents to show that she died from lung thrombus. These documents include those written by Dong Cui denouncing Falun Gong, patient care records from other inmates, testimonies from prison guards claiming that Dong had self-inflicted injuries, and an autopsy report from experts. It appears that Dong's death case can not be challenged. But are the circumstances in the reported account what really happened?

Ms. Dong Cui, 29, was a graduate student in a medical school. She was also a Falun Dafa practitioner from Gaocheng City, Hebei Province. In 2001, Dong Cui was arrested while distributing leaflets exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. She was detained at Shunyi Detention Centre in Beijing for two years. Later, she was transferred to the Beijing Women's Prison at Daxin County, where she was severely tortured. As a result, she died on March 19, 2003. At the time of death, her body was covered with bruises, and there was a hole in her head.

On the evening of March 18, 2003, Ward 3 supervisor Tian Fengqing and a "collaborator" (1) Li Xiaomei were trying to "transform" (2) Falun Dafa practitioner Xu Na. The collaborator walked in and said to Tian, "Dong Cui says she will not give up Falun Gong. What should we do?" Seeing that Tian was hesitating, Li Xiaomei said, "That's no good. It looks like we need to apply more pressure tomorrow." Tian immediately accepted this suggestion.

On the morning of the following day, Tian ordered Xi Xuehui to torture Dong Cui in the shower room. Afterward, Tian left the prison with the assistant supervisor of Ward 3, Ying Cuilan, to get an outside contract for work.

Dong Cui and another practitioner, Li Guanhua, were assigned to Ward 3 of the prison at the same time. Ms. Li Guanhua is still incarcerated at the prison. Chen Jing was in charge of transforming Li Guanhua, and Xi Xuehui was in charge of transforming Dong Cui. And it was not easy to transform Dong Cui. On March 18, for the second and last time, Dong Cui wrote statements under pressure and torture, denouncing Falun Gong. However, Tian Fengqing and Xi Xuehui believed that Dong's transformation was not complete. At around noon the next day, Xi Xuehui called together a group of people to a classroom, including Li Xiaobing and Li Xiaomei, and told them, "Dong Cui's renunciation is not acceptable. 'Take her down' in a while." Then they went their separate ways to have lunch.

Dong Cui was having lunch alone in the Prison Psychological Consultation Office. Ten minutes later, Xi Xuehui and another prison guard, Dong Xiaoqing, led the group of people to take Dong Cui to the shower room of an old prison facility, where she was viciously beaten. Unable to bear the beatings, Dong begged for mercy while lying on the floor. One of the collaborators said, "Don't believe her, she always lies!" They continued beating and kicking her as she lay on the floor defenceless. Later, Dong held her abdomen and said, "It hurts." But the persecutors said, "Don't lie to us," and they continued beating her. Later, Dong stopped making any sounds. When Li Xiaobing stopped to check her pulse, she realised there was a problem. It was 3:30 p.m. The prison guards and the inmates tried to take Dong Cui back to the prison cell. As they were walking, Dong collapsed at the door of the building. So they carried her back to the Prison Psychological Consultation Office and put her on a small bed. Someone gave Dong some water. (Dong had begged for water while she was being beaten in the shower room.) After a few sips of water, Dong suddenly felt pain in her abdominal area. The guard summoned prison doctor Zhang Xiao from Ward 3. Zhang immediately measured Dong Cui's blood pressure, and was alarmed to see that Dong had no blood pressure. A few minutes later, an ambulance came and Dong was taken to Prison Dispatch Hospital, accompanied by a collaborator. Upon examination, the hospital declared that Dong had already died. There was a dispute over the death certificate. The prison wanted the hospital to state, "Dong died after rescue efforts failed" on her death certificate. However the hospital refused.

When warden Zhang Shushun saw Dong Cui's body, he reprimanded Tian Fengqing, "Is this how you transform practitioners? How can you beat someone into this kind of shape?" Tian was called to the hospital from her home to see the body. The same night, the assistant director of the Prison Administration Bureau, Gao Jianguo, visited the Women's Prison. Tian Fengquing told Gao, "It was all my fault." And Gao indicated that he himself also bore the responsibility. Thus, the officials prepared three different plans for inspection by the Procuratorate Office. Finally, the plan that they thought would be the safest and most reasonable was selected. The plan was to have prison guard Xi Xuehui and others testify that guards alone did the transformation work on Dong Cui. They also claimed that Dong's injures were self-inflicted. A few days later, Tian Fengqing and Xi Xuehui summoned collaborator Li Xiaobing and others who were involved. They were told to create a patient care record for Dong Cui. This so-called patient care record was modified twice before being finalized, and after each modification, the brand new notebook was intentionally made to look worn-out. The final autopsy of Dong's body concluded that she had died from lung thrombus. With all the proper documents prepared, Dong Cui's death was claimed to be the result of "natural causes."

Two months passed after March 19, the day Dong Cui died, to the day of her cremation, May 17. Is this normal? Were they waiting for the family to see the body? During this period of time, the Procuratorate Office sent people to investigate the circumstances surrounding Dong's death. They talked with Li Xiaobing and others. However, before their arrival, the people who fabricated Dong's patient care records were repeatedly told, "You do not know Dong Cui died. You only heard that she had anxiety, and was restless before March 19. She thought about suicide." At the same time, the news about Dong Cui's death was completely blocked. After the cremation of Dong Cui's body, the prison and Prison Administration Bureau arranged for everyone to provide the same fabricated story - "Dong Cui died of natural causes." But Dong's family remained unconvinced. They filed an appeal with the Discipline Committee of the Prison Administration Bureau, but got no results. When bureaucrats protect one another, who can get justice?

All the prison guards involved in this case were relieved afterwards. They thought that the Prison Administration Bureau had protected them. After this incident, Tian Fengqing was no longer trembling with fear, as she was on the night of March 19. She became even more unscrupulous and insufferably arrogant. During the SARS epidemic, she hysterically attempted to transform other Falun Gong practitioners. For Dong Cui's death, Tian Fengqing had pushed all the responsibility onto Xi Xuehui. She reasoned that Xi was getting anxious seeing that Li Guanhua had been transformed smoothly while Dong Cui had not. In addition, Xi did not report the situation to her in a timely fashion so Tian herself did not know what had happened.

This may be why prison warden Zhang Shushun was relieved from his post, and Xi Xuehui was transferred, but Tian Fengqing was not affected at all. What price must a peasant pay to stand up to a government? His or her own flesh and blood? When the police kill, treating human life as if it were not worth as much as a piece of straw, and the bureaucrats protect each other by covering up the truth, there is no justice.

"To enforce the law with civility" are only empty words in the Beijing Women's Prison. We cannot let the lies from these corrupt officials deceive people any longer. The Prison Administration Bureau only protects the killers and deceives both their superiors and subordinates. A beautiful life was forfeited in their hands. Good is rewarded with good, and evil with retribution. For those prison guards who have the blood of Falun Gong practitioners on their hands, I want to ask, where are your consciences? And how can you sleep at night?

We want to tell everyone that the persecution still continues. Similar tragedies still occur. Supervisors Guo Yingchun of Ward 4, Huang Qinghua of Ward 8, and Zheng Yumei of Ward 10 are the executioners of the tragedies.

Zhou Ying, Deputy Warden of Beijing Women Prison, 86-13701383101 (mobile)
Guo Yingchun, Ward 4 supervisor, 86-13671386999 (mobile)
Huang Qinghua, Ward 8 supervisor, 86-13681292668, 86-13520328936 (mobile)

Note:

(1) "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.

(2) "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/3/23/97883.html