Details of How Falun Dafa Practitioner Wang Hongde Was Persecuted to Death

Falun Dafa practitioner Wang Hongde died as a result of persecution at the Daqing City's Hongweixing Prison on May 14th 2005.

Mr. Wang Hongde, 56, was an employee of the Xinhua Power Generation Plant in Datong District, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province. He started practising Falun Gong in 1997. After the persecution started in July 1999, Mr. Wang persisted in his belief. The Datong District police unlawfully detained him twice, for fifteen days each time, in March 2000 and February 2001. After being released from the second detention, Mr. Wang decided to leave his hometown.

In the spring of 2001, Mr. Wang invested over 200,000 yuan¹ planting seedlings and cactus in Beijing and Tangshan. On April 26th 2002, staff from the Yutian County Police Department arrested Mr. Wang and ransacked his home in Tangshan City. They found 11,000 yuan and confiscated it, calling it a "fine." The over two hundred thousand yuan investment was completely lost, which caused Wang Hongde extensive mental trauma.

Because Mr. Wang refused to give up his belief in Falun Dafa, the persecutors sentenced him to a five-year prison term. On August 16th, 2003, Mr. Wang was sent to the Hongweixing Prison in Daqing City.
On the first day, some training group guards beat and tortured Mr. Wang with leather belts. His hands were swollen, his palms were bleeding, and half of a tooth in his upper-right jaw was broken off. During the detention, staff from the prison's "Education Section" (610 Office)¹ also forced him to watch Falun Dafa slandering video programmes. They tried to brainwash him, and mentally tormented him. He was not permitted to sleep before twelve midnight.

Around December 2002, Mr. Wang suffered a heart attack as a result of the torture, and fell into a coma. He was then diagnosed with severe heart disease (mitral stenosis and third degree heart failure).
When his family heard about this they went to Daqing Prison to visit him, but prison Chief Wang Yingjie didn't allow the visit, no matter what. His reason: Wang Hongde didn't write the Three Statements³. With the family's persistent and firm requests, Wang Yingjie finally agreed reluctantly, but only with the condition that the family members would help his efforts to reform Wang Hongde. He sent Guo Chuntang from the 610 Office to accompany them (monitoring).

When the family visited him, not only did they not help reform Wang Hongde, but even gave him support and encouragement. Guo Chuntang was furious with the family and said, "Don't expect to see Wang Hongde again. You didn't even say one word telling him to repent." Since then it was even harder to visit Wang Hongde. They had to have proof from their local police that these family members were not Falun Gong practitioners.

In the meantime, the prison was required to raise their "reformation rate," so Wang Hongde's persecution worsened. He was in the prison hospital by then. Hospital director Huang often put Wang Hongde under duress to write the "Three Statements" and threatened that if he didn't write them he would be kicked out of the hospital. When another director named Gao Qing received calls from Falun Dafa practitioners he rampantly cursed Wang Hongde and forced him to tell who the caller was. Due to the mental pressure Wang Hongde's situation worsened each day. He had a hard time breathing, and had whole-body oedema. Mr. Wang was at the brink of death as a result of being tortured in prison.

The family was finally able to convince the officials to send Wang Hongde to a conventional hospital. At first, prison chief Wang Yingjie didn't agree and spoke rudely to the family. Afterwards the officials were worried about being held liable for his death, and then agreed to send Wang Hongde to the Fourth Hospital of Daqing.

On January 15th 2003, Wang Hongde went to the Fourth Hospital in heavy handcuffs and shackles. The checkup was performed while he wore the handcuffs and shackles. The final diagnosis was rheumatic heart disease, combined valve disease, high aortal pressure, mitral stenosis, tricuspid regurgitation, and fourth degree heart failure.

The doctor said that this patient was at risk of losing his life at any time and had to be kept in the hospital to be rescued. Zhu Rui, prison division leader didn't agree, and was firm in wanting to take Wang Hongde back.

Wang's family insisted on having Wang Hongde remain in the hospital. Otherwise, they would sue the prison. On January 16th 2003, the decision was made that Wang Hongde would stay at the hospital and remain there for 14 days. But the arrangement was odd.

During his stay in the hospital, the prison was trying everything to make life difficult for the family. For example: 1.Two policemen in three shifts were assigned to them. All the officers' food, lodging and expenses were charged to the family. 2. They didn't allow the family to visit. 3. Every night, Wang Hongde had to be returned to the prison and sent back to the hospital the next morning. Because the family strongly opposed this, the officials didn't do it every day.

Because Wang Hongde had fourth degree heart failure, he was eligible to obtain medical parole. On January 24th 2003 the family officially submitted applications for medical parole to the Hongweixing Prison. Prison chief Wang Yingjie not only didn't release Wang Hongde, but he also imposed a tight information blockade, intensified the persecution, and didn't permit family visits.

Wang Hongde's mother is over 70 years old. She has high blood pressure. When she heard that her son was suffering at the prison and was at risk of losing his life she travelled to the prison from far away and requested medical parole for her son.

In the morning on August 25th 2004, Wang Hongde's mother arrived at the Daqing Prison office to look for prison chief Wang Yingjie, who didn't let her enter the office. Wang Hongde's mother said, "It wasn't easy for me to come here from far away. Why don't you let me in? You made my son sick. Why can I not talk with you?" Wang Yingjie said he needed to attend a meeting and walked out of the office. Wang's mother followed him to the meeting room, asking him to give her an answer. Wang Yingjie called officers from the Hongweixing Police Station. They dragged Wang's mother from the third floor to a police car, then brought her to Hongweixing Police Station. The police interrogated her, and charged her with appealing for Falun Gong.

For two years Wang's family made continuous efforts requesting medical parole, but the prison always deceived the family with lame excuses, and gave the family the run-around. The prison division referred it to the prison hospital, and they in turn referred the matter back to the division. The division then referred it to the prison chief. Prison chief Wang Yingjie said, "We would rather see a Falun Gong practitioner die here than release him or her for medical treatment."

Such mental torment worsened Wang Hongde's illness. If he didn't feel good, a doctor would give him a shot of heart medicine. That is the only treatment the hospital supplied! When he showed a little improvement he was sent back to the prison ward. After a few days in the prison ward the illness got worse. He was then sent back to the prison hospital, back and forth. This happened again and again. During one day this actually happened three times, and in this manner Wang Hongde's health deteriorated rapidly.

On February 13th 2005, at around 2:00 p.m., Wang's family received a phone call from the Third Prison Division, telling them to go to the Fourth Daqing Hospital because Wang Hongde's illness had worsened. At around 3:00 p.m., Wang's family arrived at the emergency room. Wang Hongde was being checked and given an electro- cardiogram. The doctor said, "He is at great risk. His heart rate is over 160. He could die at any time. His illness is so severe. Why didn't you send him here earlier? He has to be admitted to the hospital now."

Prison policeman Zhu Rui and prison hospital director Gao asked the doctors if they could just subscribe some medicine for Wang Hongde instead of having him stay in the hospital. The doctor said, "The patient's heart could stop at any minute. I'm only considering this from the patient's perspective. I'll leave it up to you." Zhu Rui had to call the prison and the officials finally agreed to keep Wang Hongde at the emergency room in the first patient section. Wang Hongde's heart rate was 160-200 per minute and his whole body was swollen. He couldn't move about, so he had to relieve himself on the bed. He also had a hard time breathing. The doctor in charge of the case said, "He could die at any moment. The family should be prepared."

Wang Hongde was still forced to wear the heavy shackles and handcuffs. Wang's family pleaded several times for removal of the shackles, but no one listened. With the disease having worsened, in addition to the heavy torture implements, Wang had no choice but to relieve himself in his pants, which didn't always get cleaned up right away. Leaving the hospital after several days revealed decay on his upper thighs and leg muscles.

At around 8:00 a.m. on February 27th 2005, prison policeman Zhu Rui went to the Fourth Hospital to get Wang Hongde out. Without agreement from the family or the patient, he processed all the release paperwork.

At the time, Wang Hongde's condition was not good enough to be released from the hospital. He had only experienced a slight improvement. The doctor said this kind of illness needs to be adjusted to a stable condition or it would recur frequently, getting worse each time he has a relapse, and that he would eventually lose the chance of being treated successfully.

On February 25th 2005, Wang Hongde's family reached out to prison division leader Zhu and petitioned him to allow Wang Hongde to continue receiving hospital treatment. Zhu said he didn't have to the power to make that decision, and told Wang's family to go to the prison chief to start anew on the process. The family made hurried attempts for three days without any results. The prison consistently used the same technique, passing responsibility from one group to another.

Between February 22nd and April 30th due to the abrupt cessation of treatment, several recurrences of the illness, and not getting immediate treatment, Wang Hongde lost his chance to be treated.
Prison chief Wang Yingjie and other officials delayed the medical application process that had begun on January 24th 2003 and didn't complete it until April 20, 2005.

On May 14th 2005, fifteen days after his release, Mr. Wang passed away as a result of the persecution.

Note:

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

(2) "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

(3) "Three Statements": Practitioners are coerced under brainwashing and torture to write "Repentance Statement," "Guarantee Statement" or 'Dissociation Statement" as proof that they have given up their belief. In the statement, the practitioner is forced to admit remorse for practising Falun Gong, promise to give up Falun Gong, and never again associate with other practitioners or go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/28/107143.html