In April 2007, Twenty-One Confirmed Deaths of Practitioners Due to Torture

In April 2007, an additional twenty one deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in China due to torture were confirmed. Among them, sixteen practitioners died between January and March in 2007 and five died in April 2007. Eight practitioners, 38 per cent, were females, and thirteen, 67 per cent, were over fifty years old.

To date, the Clearwisdom website has collected 3030 confirmed deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in China due to abuse and torture since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Jiang Zemin's followers began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. These numbers were confirmed through unofficial channels, as the CCP keeps tight control over the information about the persecution. The actual death count is estimated to be much higher. During the close to eight years of this unprecedented persecution, many practitioners were arrested, imprisoned, and many disappeared. More than a year ago, the CCP's harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners was exposed to the international community. Facing worldwide condemnation, the CCP, specialised in sophistry for its crimes, only publicly acknowledged that the organs for transplant were all from executed criminals, an allegation that the CCP had denied in the past. An independent international investigation committee discovered that according to official data from China, there were over sixty thousand organ transplants but only over one thousand executed criminals during the past few years. The CCP has not responded.

The twenty one deaths confirmed in April 2007 were found in the following provinces, cities, and Autonomous Regions (ARs): Jilin Province (four deaths), Heilongjiang Province (three deaths), Hubei Province (three deaths), Shandong Province (three deaths), Liaoning Province (two deaths), Sichuan Province (one death), Inner Mongolia AR (one death), Tianjin City (one death), Jiangxi Province (one death), Shanxi Province (one death), and Shaanxi Province (one death).

There were teachers, professionals, retired workers, factory workers, farmers, and others. Many of these practitioners had serious illnesses (some were even fatal diseases) before they practised Falun Gong. After they practised Falun Gong and lived by the principles of Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance, they regained their health and improved their moral standards. Falun Gong provides hundreds of benefits and brings no harm to the public and the nation. When Falun Dafa was slandered, these people held onto their beliefs and kept informing people about the true nature of Falun Gong. The CCP treated them as a political enemy and carried out an unprecedented and inhuman political persecution.

When practitioner Ms. Sun Houlian from Xiayu Village, Gaoling Town, Mouping District, Yantai City, Shandong Province, was imprisoned at the Zibo City Number Two Women's Forced Labour Camp, Wang Village, Zibo City, Shandong Province, she was forced to watch other practitioners being hung up and beaten. That left a deep psychological scar on her mind. She was tortured to death on March 16th, 2007, at the age of 57. Because the CCP's annihilation policy "to ruin [Falun Gong practitioners] reputation, bankrupt [them] financially, and destroy [them] physically" and "beating to death is counted as suicide," the guards and police were given the licence to kill and maim at will. They were not held accountable for injuries, maiming or death. Practitioner Mr. Yang Pingshen, 64, died due to torture at the Nanchang Prison, Jiangxi Province, in March 2007. The family received no more than a box of his ashes after being notified of his death.

Purchasing Agent Mr. Liu Jingming Died at the Age of Thirty Nine

Practitioner Mr. Liu Jingming from Heilongjiang Province worked at Qiqihar City Chinese Medicine Hospital, Heilongjiang Province. He was honoured as an "outstanding" purchasing agent. During the CCP's extremely brutal persecution against Falun Gong, Mr. Liu Jingming had been imprisoned, sent to forced labour camp and tortured. On February 8th, 2007, he was detained at Tailai Prison. It took wardens at Tailai Prison only 46 days to torture thirty nine year-old Mr. Liu to death. At 7 p.m. on March 24th, 2007, Warden Ji Hengtai of the Training Unit at Tailai Prison phoned Liu Jingming's home. He claimed that Mr. Liu died after "jumping out of the window of the building" at 1:40 a.m. on March 24th. The CCP has used this excuse for almost eight years after murdering practitioners.

Practitioner Mr. Liu Jingming was born on July 23rd, 1968. He worked at Qiqihar City Chinese Medicine Hospital and was considered an "outstanding" purchasing agent. He began to practise Falun Gong in 1995, and lived his life by the principles "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance." He thought of others first before doing or saying anything. He was not corrupt or selfish when he worked as a purchasing agent. He treated people kindly, and was recognised as a good person by the entire hospital staff. His invention "two sections stick" for the hospital's security department was patented by the China Patent Office in 1995. The hospitals suffered from severe water loss in 2001. Most of the taps leaked, and the hospital could not get it fixed after spending a great deal of money. Mr. Liu Jingming fixed all the taps in the hospital without asking for compensation. The hospital staff no longer had problems with the taps. The savings to the hospital amounted to several thousands yuan¹ a year. The hospital emblem he engraved in 2002 during his spare time still hangs in the hospital office.

Sadly, such a kindhearted, compassionate and good person who lived by the principles "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" was imprisoned and taken to a forced labour camp. They extorted money, and sentenced and murdered him after Falun Dafa was banned in 1999 by the CCP.

At 11 a.m. on March 25th, some of Liu's family members went to Tailai Prison. Warden Ji Hengtai claimed that the guards at the prison "cared" for practitioners. When questioned about the cause of Liu Jingming's death, Ji Hengtai said, "We carry out forced 'transformation²' of practitioners. Mr. Liu Jingming was 'very stubborn.' He would not recite prison rules, only his Teacher's Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] articles. Mr. Liu Jingming chose death because he 'felt that the prison term was too long.'"

Ji Hengtai claimed that Mr. Liu Jingming was held in the training cell on the 3rd floor. At 1:15 am on March 24th, Mr. Liu Jingming asked to go to the toilet. Two prisoners were on duty and one was smoking outside the cell. The prisoner alleged that he heard the sound of the iron window opening. He went inside to grab Mr. Liu Jingming's right hand. Mr. Liu Jingming escaped and jumped out of the window through the open iron bars. Five minutes later, they carried Liu Jingming to the prison hospital. Mr. Liu Jingming died at 1:40 am on March 24th, 2007.

Family members, deeply grieved, asked indignantly, "Since Mr. Liu Jingming died at 1:40 a.m., why did the prison staff not notify the family until 7 p.m.? What did you do for those 18 hours? Can iron bars be so easily broken loose at the prison? Besides, Mr. Liu Jingming endured great suffering from forced-transformation, was tortured daily and was emaciated. Where did he get the strength to break open the iron bars? Mr. Liu Jingming's knees were purple and black. There was blood and other marks on his knees. This was certainly caused by long term kneeling." The prison could not answer.

When the family members, with eyes filled with tears saw Mr. Liu Jingming's body, they were shocked. The body was horribly mangled. The right side of the head was caved in. The face and entire body was horribly damaged. The woollen sweater and pants he wore were soaked with blood, but his underwear and underpants did not show any bloodstains. Mr. Liu Jingming's elder sister said that this was not his underwear. The left leg showed signs of possible torture. The right leg had a hole, which was approximately 5 to 6 centimetres in diameter. The right leg was twisted and both knees were purple and black and showed coagulated blood.

According to an anonymous source, Mr. Liu Jingming and other Falun Gong practitioners were taken to the Tailai Prison on February 8th, 2007. They were first put in the Training Centre to undergo forced "transformation" through torture. On March 22nd, 2007, "Touring Speakers" went to Tailai Prison to slander Dafa, Mr. Liu Jingming, Mr. Ren Yingqun and other two Falun Gong practitioners stood up to expose the lies. They were brutally tortured afterwards. Wardens and criminal inmate Zhou Lixin beat him to death. Because his body had many injury marks, they could not claim him as "sudden death of heart failure" to deceive his family, so the prison fabricated the "jumping out of window." The prison put Zhou Lixin into a confined compartment so that the truth would not be revealed.

(More information can be found at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200704/38963.html).

The Annihilation Torture Did not Leave a Man over Seventy in Peace

Practitioner Mr. Zhao Dianbin, 78 years old, was from Chifeng City, the Inner Mongolian AR. Zhao Dianbin was originally from the Songshan District of Chifeng City. He used to suffer from various illnesses such as asthma and heart disease caused by lung disorders. His annual medical costs were the highest at his place of employment. Mr. Zhao started to practise Falun Dafa in 1996 and all his illnesses were cured. His face turned red and his grey hair turned black. He no longer needed to spend a penny on medicine.

In July 1999, the CCP and Jiang's regime started to persecute Falun Dafa. On July 22nd, 1999, several policemen roughly forced Mr. Zhao into a police vehicle when he was practising the Falun Gong exercises in front of Chifeng City Museum. They drove him and other practitioners to a mountain in a far-away Chifeng suburban area. Then they pushed him and the other practitioners out of the vehicle and left. The practitioners had to walk a long way home. On July 23rd, 1999, police chief Liu Qi from the Xitun local police station in the Hongshan District arrested Mr. Zhao at his home and took him to the police station. The police forced Mr. Zhao, in his seventies, to stay under the steaming hot sun until he fell over from heat exhaustion. One sympathetic policeman finally let him go home.

In October 1999, Zhao Dianbin went to Beijing to appeal for Dafa. The Beijing police arrested him and detained him in Huairou County (a Beijing suburb), where Chinese Communist Party (CCP) personnel threatened Mr. Zhao that they would "execute" him. Later they took Mr. Zhao to the Chifeng City Liaison Office in Beijing. Then he was taken back to Chifeng. Zheng Hongchao (or Zheng Hongtao) stole Mr. Zhao's money that he had in his pocket.

On October 30th, 2000, CCP personnel from the Hongshan District suddenly arrived at Mr. Zhao's residence to ransack his home and confiscate his personal belongings. They arrested him, his wife Mrs. Zou Reihuan, his son Mr. Zhao Hongyang, and daughter-in-law Mrs. Zhao Chunfeng. All of them were later cruelly tortured. Policeman Yang Liping and another officer used barbaric methods to torture Mr. Zhao Dianbin. They used electric shocks and brutal beatings. In addition, they handcuffed him and then tightened the cuffs until he passed out. They then fabricated an oral confession and pressed his fingerprint on the paper while he was unconscious. After that, they used this falsified oral confession to implicate Mr. Zhao's daughter, Ms. Zhao Shuzhen, who worked in Beijing. This case provided false testimony for the notorious officials Bu Ren and others, who used it as their justification to torture Mr. Zhao Hongyang, Mrs. Zhao Chunfeng, and Mrs. Zou Ruihuan.

The CCP personnel spread lies about Ms. Zhao Shuzhen and gathered over a dozen police officers to go to Beijing to arrest her. They claimed that they had solved an important case. The officers and Chifeng TV Station videotaped Ms. Zhao Shuzhen, and broadcast it on the Inner Mongolia AR TV Station channel. They broadcast information on Ms. Zhao's whole family and her relatives. In addition, they asked her to comment on the staged "self-immolation³" case. Ms. Zhao said, "Dafa practitioners do not kill any animals, not to mention a human being." The Hongshan District Court sentenced Ms. Zhao to three years in prison, and locked her up in the First Women's Prison in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia AR.

CCP personnel in Chifeng detained Mr. Zhao in the Hongshan District Detention Centre. They stole the 220 yuan he had with him and also extorted 6,000 yuan. Officer Yang Liping would not issue a receipt.

In May 2005, officials from the Hongshan District suddenly broke into Zhao Honghai's residence. They confiscated the recordings of Dafa lectures. In October 2006, they suddenly broke into Mr. Zhao Dianbin's residence and took away the family's inherited silver.

In addition, Yin Shouming from Tienan Police Station in the Hongshan District, Xu Caiyun from the Residential Committee, and Ma and Zou Jinglin from the Street Administration Office went to Mr. Zhao's home repeatedly, trying to drive him out of their jurisdiction. They came day and night to threaten him. They pounded on the door, and yelled wildly. His neighbours were horrified. Mr. Zhao's three sons, three daughters-in-law, and three daughters were all arrested and put into prison for practising Falun Gong.

Mr. Zhao Dianbin had been harassed by CCP personnel for a long time. His entire family had suffered various degrees of persecution. As a result of the relentless persecution, Mr. Zhao passed away on March 20th, 2007.

(More information can be found at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200704/38996.html)

Middle School Teacher Mr. Chen Qiji from Hubei Province Was Tortured to Death, Leaving Old Parents and Small Child Behind

Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Chen Qiji, 46, was a middle school teacher in Jinmen City, Hubei Province. Because he firmly held onto his belief and publicly spoke the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution, he was sentenced to ten years in Shayang Prison in Hubei Province. He was brutally tortured and died in April 2007.

Mr. Chen Qiji was about 6 feet tall and was physically strong. Because he was firm in his belief and continued to practise Falun Dafa, he was brutally mistreated by CCP officials. He was sentenced to three years of forced labour in 1999 and was arrested again in 2004 because he was publicly informing people about the true nature of Falun Gong about the persecution. He was sentenced to ten years in prison secretly without any legal procedures.

During his detention in Shayang Prison, Mr. Chen Qiji remained firm in his belief. As punishment, he endured numerous kinds of cruel torture until his life was in danger. On February 7th, 2007, the Prison Administration was worried that he might die in the prison, so they took him home at the brink of death. Mr. Chen died on April 3rd, 2007.

Mr. Chen Qiji's wife, Ms. Li Yanhua, is also a Falun Dafa practitioner. She supported her husband's practice. She was also arrested in 2004 and sentenced to ten years in prison. She is currently detained in the Wuhan Women's Prison. The couple has not seen each other for the past six years due to the persecution. She was not allowed to see her husband even when he was dying. Now there are only Mr. Chen's parents (both in their 70s) and Ms. Li's mother (in her 80s) taking care of their young child.

(More information can be found at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200704/38946.html)

Note

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

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")

3. The "Tiananmen Self-Immolation" [an incident on Tiananmen Square in January 2001 whereby four people set themselves alight and the Chinese Communist claimed they were Falun Gong practitioners, yet there was video evidence to strongly disprove this claim]

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/5/154162.html