In Remembrance of Practitioner Mr. Yang Xiaojie from Shijiazhuang City

Yang Xiaojie

Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Yang Xiaojie from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2002 and was locked up at the No. 11 Ward of No. 4 Prison (It was formerly Northern Suburb Prison, Shijiazhuang City). On January 26th, 2006 Mr. Yang died as a result of inhuman torture at the age of 40. He left behind his 70-year old parents, his beloved daughter and wife of 13 to 14 years. His wife, Ms. Liu Runling, had been sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for practising Falun Dafa and she is now held at the Hebei Provincial Women's Prison. Their underage daughter who could not bear the blows one after another wandered about and sealed herself up. She refused to go to the prison to visit her mother and also refused to be cared for by her relatives. Yet another happy family has been ruined in the persecution of Falun Gong.

Mr. Yang Xiaojie was the pride of his parents. He was a pure-hearted and lively boy and everyone loved him. He had a younger brother and sister. When coming home from school he would cook for his brother and sister. He was really a good helper for his parents. In school, he was a good student. After graduation he worked for the Northern Office of the Chinese Youth Newspaper and had always been employed at high levels. His colleagues all spoke highly of him. After learning Falun Dafa he knew how to be a good person. He set a very high standard for himself and everyone said he was a good person.

Since the persecution began in 1999, Mr. Yang Xiaojie and his family lost their normal peaceful life. The section policemen and the policemen from the local police substation came to harass him or summoned him to the police substation for questioning at their will, no matter if it was daytime or midnight. This gave their neighbours no peace. Finally Mr. Yang was forced to leave home to avoid being further persecuted.

On September 28th, 2001, Mr. Yang was arrested at Kaida Residential Area in Shijiazhuang City. In 2002 he was sentenced to 11 years in jail. On July 15th, 2003 he was held at the No. 4 Group, No. 1 Division in No. 11 Ward of the Hebei Provincial No. 4 Prison. While in jail, Mr. Yang wrote to Wen Jiabao (the current Premier of China) and leaders at different levels to appeal and request that these leaders investigate what kind of people these practitioners were, and stop the persecution of Falun Gong and restore the innocence and freedom of the practitioners. When Mr. Yang handed in the appeal letters to the leaders of the prison ward they tore them to pieces in his presence. They said it was useless to write letters like that. He was badly upset by the incident.

The authorities of the Hebei Provincial No. 4 Prison incited the criminals to beat up and swear at the practitioners and kept the practitioners under their surveillance. Criminal Fan Jiangshan was rewarded for torturing practitioners and was released ahead of the expiry of his of imprisonment terms. However, Mr. Yang Xiaojie was locked in confinement twice, one month each, simply because he refused to give up his belief and persisted in being a good person. Being placed in confinement was extremely cruel and inhuman. The Head of the prison's Education Department, Wang Guobin, directed the prison doctors to barbarically insert a tube into Mr. Yang's esophagus. After the insertion they said the tube was too fine so they pulled it out and inserted a thicker tube. When Mr. Yang was suffering from extreme pain, the prison doctors poured in salt water, which was dozens of times thicker than normal salt water. Instantly the salt water filled Mr. Yang's chest, nasal cavity and mouth. The explosive force caused by choking was so great that three men failed to hold him down. Mr. Yang sat up abruptly. He coughed, spit blood and ran a high fever. He suffered in pain for dozens of days. His health was ruined and he suffered a heavy blow mentally.

The photo was taken after Mr. Yang passed away

The Hebei Provincial No. 4 Prison made a regulation that the families could only visit the detainees once every two months. There was an additional regulation which set the visiting time for practitioners after 2 o'clock. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of November 23rd, 2004 Mr. Yang's parents went to visit him. Mr. Yang was very happy to see them and comforted his mother. In the days that followed, Mr. Yang was deprived of his right to meet his parents at visiting time and he was even not allowed to phone his parents simply because he refused to renounce Falun Gong. His family basically lost contact with Mr. Yang. After more than a year, Mr. Yang's parents visited him again and found that he had been paralysed for more than half a year. He was skin and bones and was dying.

In 2005, the visiting dates were February 16th, April 13th, June 13th, August 15th, October 19th and December 14th. No matter how hot in summer or how cold in winter, Mr. Yang's parents went to the prison to visit their son, regardless of wind or rain. However, the warden did not allow them to see their son. They said the prison made a regulation that before the practitioner renounced Falun Gong, they were not allowed to meet with their families. Mr. Yang's parents earnestly begged them with no effect. They asked to just say a few words with Mr. Yang or hear his voice, or take a glance at him from a distance. One day the old couple was on their knees to beg the guards to let them see Mr. Yang. However they were cruelly refused. They also cheated the old couple saying that Mr. Yang was in good health.

December 14th, 2005 was the last visiting day of the year. Mr. Yang Xiaojie's parents thought that because they were not allowed to see their son for a whole year and it was the last visiting day, they might be given the opportunity. They went to the prison imbued with hope. However, the answer remained the same: "No visit if there was no renouncement."

No longer able to contain themselves, the old couple angrily rebuked the prison guards, "Are you heartless? We are not going to leave today. We will go to see whichever leader as long as you mention them." They were then allowed to see the leaders of the prison. However, there were guards who stopped them from going into the office. So they went back to see the heads of the ward. They said since the central heating was out of order it was cold in the cell. They said Mr. Yang felt very cold so they asked the old couple to go home to get him a blanket. On the following day the old couple gave them the blanket and asked to see their son. When the prison guards found that they could not cover up any more they disclosed that Mr. Yang was unable to take care of himself, therefore, he could not walk to the visiting room. The old couple could hardly stand on hearing the news. They requested to see their son but the prison guards pleaded they were not in the position to do so and told them that the visit would need to be approved by the Hebei Prison Administrative Bureau. The old couple were so worried about their son so they cried for help. The Guards asked them to leave because they said it was too cold, plus it was no use for them to cry. Braving the cold wind the couple went to see the responsible members of the governments at all levels straight away. They reported the case to the leaders and requested that Mr. Yang be released on bail to receive medical treatment. They went to the Prison Administrative Bureau twice. After more than 10 days of concerted efforts, they were finally allowed to see their son. On December 28th, 2005, Wang Guobin, the Head of the Education Department of the Hebei Provincial No. 4 Prison, took the old couple to the prison hospital where they saw their son, who was skin and bones and in a coma. The old man and woman squatted on their knees and stroked their son's face. They cried, 'Xiaojie, Xiaojie, daddy and mum are her to see you." Mr. Yang slowly opened his eyes and waited quite some time before he could say "Mum." The old couple lost their senses at the time and cried, "Xiaojie, you must hold out and be strong! We will certainly take you home!" Xiaojie's younger sister and brother-in-law could not recognise him because he was totally out of shape. Mr. Yang's parents requested to bail him out for medical treatment. The prison authorities helped them going through all the formalities because they did not want to shoulder responsibility for his death. They handed the dying Mr. Yang Xiaojie to his parents, who took him back home at 8:40 in the evening.

Mr. Yang Xiaojie's family were so worried about his condition, so the following day they took him to the Hebei Provincial No. 4 Hospital. On seeing Mr. Yang Xiaojie, the doctor's first words were, "How come you came so late! It is too late!" Mr. Yang Xiaojie said the prison had never treated the practitioners as human beings. After examination the doctor told Mr. Yang's family that he was incurable and asked them to prepare for funeral affairs. Under the care of his family, Mr. Yang Xiaojie past away on January 26th, 2006 at the age of 40.

Mr. Yang Xiaojie's death was a heavy blow to his parents. They were not in their normal mind any more and could not fall asleep. His father said repeatedly that he wanted to die for his son. Beside his parents, other members of the family also grieved because they just could not accept such a tragedy. Mr. Yang's death directly affected their health.

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Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/1/31/147998.html