Mr. Xiao Zhixiang, 67, on the Brink of Death in Chishan Prison, Hunan Province

Falun Gong practitioner Mr. Xiao Zhixiang, 67, lived in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province. He is now in Jinshi Prison in Changde City, Hunan Province, and has been tortured to the brink of death. To all who advocate human rights: please pay close attention to Mr. Xiao's case.

Mr. Xiao was born on October 16th, 1940. He was a retired official of the Gas Company in Xiangtan City. He also worked as a high school principal and manager of Xiangtan Coal Company Labour Service, Inc. When he retired in 1996, he began to practise Falun Gong. Those who knew him said that he was a good official. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, and Mr. Xiao has been persecuted ever since. The CCP deemed him an organiser and sentenced him twice, detaining him at a detention centre and then in Chenzhou Prison, Wangling Prison, and Jingshi Prison for eight years. He has spent the past six years in either a detention centre or prison. He has been tortured by being hung by his handcuffs, abusively shouted at, beaten, and made to do hard labour. Any refusal to do forced labour would result in being hung up by his handcuffs or detained in a small cell.

In mid-October 1999, while doing the exercises at his regular exercise spot in a park, Mr. Xiao was arrested and detained for 15 days by the Xiangtan Public Security Bureau for "disrupting social order." On New Year's Eve of 2000, he travelled to Beijing to promote Falun Dafa by doing the exercises. Mr. Xiao was detained by officials from the Beijing Qiangmen Police Sub-station. When he was sent back to Xiangtan, he was tried at the Xiangtang Yuhu Police Sub-station in late February 2001. He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment, convicted of "using an organisation to hinder the implementation of law enforcement." He was taken to the Xiangtan City Detention Centre. He repeatedly appealed to the local court, provincial procuratorate, and court, but all his appeals were rejected without reason. In November 2001 he was sent to Chisan Prison in Yuanjiang, Hunan Province. He was imprisoned by company managers, who demanded that his son "look after him" for a month. In February 2000, he was sent to a detention centre.

Mr. Xiao suffered from every kind of torture in Chisan Prison. Since he persisted in his belief, guards at the prison hung him on a steel fence on February 28th, 2002. He was tortured in this way 14 to 15 hours a day. On the fifth day, a guard ordered a criminal inmate to humiliate him. He was ruthlessly punched in the eye and stomach. He was slapped and kicked so severely that he was dizzy and lost his hearing. He was kicked until he bled although he wore pants. He still carries a bruise caused by a heel kick. He was hung up for half month.

On April 25th, when a practitioner in the same prison went out to practise the exercises, a guard said Mr. Xiao had encouraged him to, so Mr. Xiao was hung on a window bar. He went on a hunger strike in protest. Three days later the guards force-fed him. To do this, he was handcuffed behind his back and pinned to the ground facing up. Four or five criminal inmates grabbed his limbs and torso, while another squeezed his nose shut very tightly and pried open his mouth with a metal spoon. Then a hollow bamboo stick that had one end cut into a sharp point was inserted, and rice soup diluted with mineral water was poured through the stick. His throat was severely injured and he was unable to swallow even water for four or five days.

On May 23rd, 2002, when Mr. Xiao meditated on a bed, guards handcuffed him. He was repeatedly handcuffed if he did not give up doing the exercises. The third day, a guard dragged him out of bed and kicked him hard. Two guards dragged him downstairs and to the exercise yard. He was handcuffed behind his back, then he was hung up over a basketball hoop, allowing only his toes to touch the ground. The next day he was subjected to more bodily punishment by being kicked and slapped with a leather belt. He was ordered to do 30 push-ups, which he refused to do. The guard then hung him up on the basketball hoop as before until inspectors arrived at the prison. Later the guard instigated a criminal inmate to handcuff him from behind so that he could not go to sleep until June 3rd.

To make money, on July 20th the prison established a chilli factory. Mr. Xiao was ordered to cut chillis, which he refused to do. He was handcuffed in a dense bushy area, where mosquitoes stung him. Mr. Xiao again went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, and he resisted the hard labour. When the weather cooled off and it was raining, a guard allowed criminals to beat his lower legs with a wooden stick. He was then dragged from the building and forced to remain in the exercise yard. Afterwards he was pushed into a garbage truck and moved to the work area. There he was hung up by handcuffs in the truck until 10 p.m. He was sent back to his cell and handcuffed to the bed for five days. On the sixth day when he continued to mediate, a guard instigated criminal inmates to beat him with a bamboo board. They shouted: "Don't do the exercises." He still closed his eyes and did not care. The other inmates used the sides of the bamboo board to hit his arms and back more than 100 times. His arm became swollen, and his hands and back were blue and swollen the next day.

On November 24th, two fellow practitioners were detained in the prison. They refused to identify themselves. The guard again said that Mr. Xiao had been the one to encourage them not to. The next day the guard and criminal inmates beat him to the ground. To protest he once again went on a hunger strike for nine days. Mr. Xiao was tortured like this for two years in Chisan Prison.

After his release in February 2003, he repeatedly went to the local government and the 610 Office¹ to appeal and submit reports. He appealed for Dafa and himself, however, he was plotted against. During this time, an official considered him a leader among Falun Gong practitioners and often harassed him.

On the morning of January 18th, 2005, while shopping for vegetables at the marketplace, Mr. Xiao was once again arrested by personnel from the Xiangtan 610 Office and imprisoned in a detention centre. A list of fabricated crimes was concocted and Mr. Xiao was sentenced to three and half years in prison. He was detained at Chenzhou Prison in a small cell for long periods of time and suffered from numerous inhumane tortures. He was mentally humiliated and tortured so severely that his pulse was barely discernible, his blood pressure increased ,and he almost went into shock. The guards did not release him. Instead they transferred him to Jingshi Prison in Hunan Province for further persecution.

Note

1. "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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/10/2/163725.html