The Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in Tianshui City, Gansu Province

1. Partial details of practitioners who died as a result of persecution

Wang Shenggui, a monk from the Yuquan Taoist Temple, Tianshui City passed away in detention

Officials discovered Mr. Wang, age 35, in possession of a copy of the Falun Dafa book, Zhuan Falun at the end of 2000. He was detained for months and went on a protest hunger strike for over 40 days. He passed away at the Min County Detention Centre. Following are details:

Wang Shenggui, a monk from the Yuquan Taoist Temple, Tianshui, Gansu Province, began practising Falun Dafa in 1999. In December 2000, there was a theft at the Yuquan Taoist Temple. Policemen searched the temple and found Wang Shenggui in possession of a copy of the Falun Dafa book, Zhuan Falun. They detained Mr. Wang for over three months, in violation of the Chinese Constitution, at a drug rehabilitation centre located in the Qincheng District, Tianshui City. Meanwhile, the police tried to force him to write the guarantee statement to give up practising, but Wang Shenggui refused and his firm determination to cultivate in Dafa did not waver. On March 9th, 2001, he was sent back to his hometown in Min County where he was again detained, this time for over four months. To protest the persecution, Wang Shenggui started a hunger strike. The officials at the Min County Detention Centre ignored the hunger strike and refused to release Mr. Wang. After a hunger strike that lasted for over 40 days, Wang Shenggui passed away in July in the same year. The detention centre officials lied to his family saying, "Wang Shenggui died of sickness and the hospital was unable to save him."

Policemen beat Huang Zhili to death

Practitioner Huang Zhili from Tianshui City was the victim of police beatings that left him with severe injuries from which he later died. Mr. Huang, age 53, was a practitioner from Mawusi Village (Shilipu Town, Tianshui City Gangu County). He went to Beijing to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. After his return, a villager reported him to the police. Local police arrested Mr. Huang in 2001. He was unlawfully detained. During the interrogation, the police attempted to force Huang Zhili to give up cultivation. The police beat him brutally and he was tortured to the brink of death. The police were afraid of taking responsibility for Mr. Huang's condition, and drove him back home in a police vehicle. The injuries were too severe however, and he missed critical treatment time. Two days later, Huang Zhili passed away at home.

Ms. Chen Guilan, a senior engineer of the Nuclear Industry 213 Team, was tortured to death

Dafa practitioner Chen Guilan was from the Beidao District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province. She was a senior engineer at the Nuclear Industry 213 Team. In September 2001, Communist regime agent Feng Jitang from the Beidao District Police Department deceived Ms. Chen into going to the police department. When she had just stepped inside the gate, the police immediately arrested her and pushed her into a police car. They sent her right away to the Lanzhou City Women's Forced Labour Camp in Gansu Province. Several days later, Ms. Chen died in the camp from gross physical abuse. The police told her family on October 1st to pick up the body. They told her family that she died of heart disease. When Chen Guilan's husband went to see the body, he saw that a large area of one of her legs was black and purple and showed blood. It was obvious that Ms. Chen died from torture.

Liu Wenyu, a retired employee from the Railroad Hospital in Tianshui City died as a result of persecution

Liu Wenyu, age 53, was a retired employee of the Railroad Hospital. She started practising Falun Gong in October 1998. At the end of December 1999 she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. The local police detained her for two weeks and fined her 4,000 yuan¹. In December 2000, Ms. Liu went to Tiananmen Square alone, saying to people, " Falun Dafa is good." Officials delivered her back to Tianshui City where she was sent to the Anning District Forced Labour Camp in Lanzhou City for two years. Liu Wenyu refused to cooperate with the unreasonable demands of the persecutors. She went on a hunger strike in protest, and they brutally force-fed her. The feeding tube caused excessive stomach bleeding. Ms. Liu endured many additional tortures. When she returned home from the labour camp, Beidao District agents went to her home and continued to harass her. As a result of the unrelenting persecution, Ms. Liu passed away in February 2004.

Liu Zhirong died at the 3rd Prison, Tianshui City

Dafa practitioner Mr. Liu Zhirong was a teacher at the Tuanjie Elementary School in the Xifeng District, Qingyang City, Gansu Province. He was tortured to death before January 14th, 2006, by a murderous 1st Prison guard. The prison cremated Mr. Liu's body without prior notification of his family. The funeral parlor in Qingyang City, Mr. Liu's hometown, received the urn from the prison officials. The authorities claimed that he died of "suicide."

Liu Zhirong, age 42, went to Beijing to appeal with Xu Feng and other practitioners on December 4th, 1999. When he returned, the police unlawfully arrested and incarcerated him in a detention centre for over 70 days. Zheng Xiang, a policeman from the National Security Section, the Xifeng District Police Department, beat him cruelly. On April 10th, 2000, Zheng Xiang tricked Liu Zhirong into coming to the police station. He put Mr. Liu into a drug rehabilitation centre to continue the persecution. Mr. Liu was later taken to a "public trial." He was paraded in the streets and humiliated. Liu Zhirong was put into a labour camp for one year, in violation of the Chinese Constitution. On April 25th, he was delivered to the 1st Pingantai Forced Labour Camp in Lanzhou City and was released on July 1st, 2001.

On April 28th, 2002, Zheng Xiang led a group of policemen and rushed to the Tuanjie Elementary School. They tried to coerce Liu Zhirong into fingerprinting a document they had brought. Liu Zhirong refused. The policemen surrounded him in the schoolyard. They kicked him, stomped on him, and hit him violently with their police batons. Accompanied by their yelling and defamatory remarks they pushed Mr. Liu into a police vehicle. Teachers and students saw the policemen's brutality. Later, the police went to Liu Zhirong's home and ransacked his place. They broke several locks during the search, turning Mr. Liu's home upside down. In the afternoon of April 30th, the police sent Liu Zhirong to a detention centre. Mr. Liu said that he was not a criminal and refused to enter through the gate. The police then beat him and dragged him forcibly into his cell. Mr. Liu went on a hunger strike and became very weak, but the police didn't release him. Instead, they put him in a labour camp for three years. They then transferred Liu Zhirong to a rehabilitation centre for further persecution. Liu Zhirong struggled against the abuse. The perpetrators beat him and carried him into his cell.

By the end of October 2002, Liu Zhirong had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. At the end of October 2003, he was transferred to the Dashaping Prison in Lanzhou City, where he was confined and continuously abused under the persecution. In December 25th of the same year, he was transferred again, to Dingxi Prison in Gansu Province. At the end of 2005, Liu Zhirong, Xu Feng and six other detained practitioners were sent to the 3rd Prison in Tianshui City. At noon on January 10th, 2006, a prison guard from the 1st Prison District kicked the base of Mr. Liu's ear with his heavy boot. Mr. Liu Zhirong died from the blow.

2. The crimes of Feng Jitang and Wu Hongxia, officials from the Beidao District Police Department in Tianshui City

Zhou Jizu, former chief of the Political and Security Section at the Beidao District Police Department in Tianshui City, beat a woman practitioner who went to Beijing twice to appeal for Dafa. His beatings were so severe that the woman was covered in bruises and unable to walk. She could only crawl to the toilet. She was forbidden to drink clean water, but only the dirty water in a basin. A sixty-year-old practitioner from Mapaoquan Village was unconstitutionally detained because she shared experiences with other practitioners. Fifteen days later, the lawless authorities tried to extort 500 yuan from her. Since her family was extremely poor and couldn't afford to pay, officer Zhou Jizu handcuffed her to the police department's metal door and used a metal shovel to beat the practitioner. Zhou locked up several dozen practitioners and sent many practitioners to forced labour camps.

Feng Jitang, the new Political and Security Section chief of the Beidao District Police Department, along with another police officer, beat a female practitioner for a long time. It happened around noon, after they found Master Li's articles at that practitioner's home. The brutal beatings resulted in bumps and bruises covering her legs, to the extent that she couldn't stand or walk.

Feng Jitang and Wu Hongxia were the two most brutal officials from Beidao. Their hands are stained with the blood of Dafa practitioners. They caused many family tragedies. Since the persecution started on July 20th, 1999 they have closely followed Jiang Zemin's Communist regime to insanely persecute practitioners. They often bound practitioners and hung them up, and then beat and otherwise tortured them. By conservative estimates, these two have personally sent more than 30 practitioners to forced labour camps. The practitioners they have beaten included the elderly in their sixties or seventies, elementary school students who were only about 11 years old, and those who were disabled. Practitioner Zhang Jinmei sustained a broken arm from their beatings.

On August 30th, 2004, these police officers arrested a female practitioner from Huaniu Town, Beidao District. To get this practitioner to reveal and denounce other practitioners, officers Feng Jitang, Ding Mao, Liu Qi, and political head Gao subjected her to torture to get a "confession". They handcuffed her with her arms behind her back and beat her using thick sticks, making her roll on the ground in pain. Her whole body was covered with bruises. They detained this practitioner and tortured her for one week. They released her only after they realized they could not get any information from her.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/1/24/119296.html