64 Year Old Ms. Zhang Lanhua from Hebei Province Died from Persecution-Related Illnesses in August 2004

Ms. Zhang Lanhua, 64 years old, was a resident of Wanquan County, Hebei Province. She originally suffered from many ailments such as pains in her leg, back, and head, and she suffered from heart disease and neurasthenia. After Ms. Zhang started to practise Falun Gong in 1996, all her symptoms disappeared, and she could once again do household chores. After July 20, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong began, the village Party secretaries extorted 1,000 yuan (1) from Zhang Lanhua because she persisted in practising Falun Gong.

In November 2000, police took Ms. Zhang away from her residence. They then ransacked her home without a search warrant and confiscated her belongings. They took away all of her Falun Dafa books, and her leaflets exposing the persecution. They viciously assaulted Ms. Zhang Lanhua during her detention, shocking her with electric batons, a brutal torture which blistered her mouth. Ms. Zhang did not give up her practice or belief in Falun Dafa. The authorities forced her son, a non-practitioner, to write the so-called guarantee statement (2) without her knowledge, and locked him up for 24 hours. They only released him after extorting 2,000 yuan from him.

After Ms. Zhang returned home, her health was consistently bad, and she kept having nosebleeds. Village officials frequently came to her house to harass her, which caused her old illnesses to return. Ms. Zhang had been living a financially precarious existence all along, so after having money extorted from her twice, she was in extreme financial difficulty. Because the minds of her family members had been poisoned by the slanderous propaganda, they were afraid of being persecuted and did not dare expose the authorities' criminal acts. Ms. Zhang was sent to a hospital and spent another 6,000 yuan on medical bills, but she was still not cured. On August 16, 2004, Ms. Zhang Lanhua passed away.

Note:

(1) "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

(2) "Guarantee Statement": A statement to declare that one is remorseful for practising Falun Gong and guarantees not to practise Falun Gong again, not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and never again associate with any Falun Dafa practitioners.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/4/1/98632.html