Life in Danger after One Month Hunger Strike

Engineer Fang Longchao, male, is from Xianning of Hubei Province. He was born on April 28, 1961, earned a bachelor's degree and was an engineer at the Design Office of the Changjiang Water Conservancy Committee in Wuhan City, Hubei Province.

Fang went to Beijing in the end of July 1999 to appeal for Falun Gong and just for that was unlawfully sentenced to the Shayangfanjiatai Prison in Hubei Province for three years on November 18.

During his detention, Fang was forced to perform hard labour in the high-temperature environment of a brick kiln and also received all kinds of vicious coercion and persecution. For example, prison guards tried to force him to step on Teacher Li's picture. Because he firmly refused, prison guards and prisoners ruthlessly beat him until he lost consciousness. After he woke up, the guards asked him if he would still continue practicing Falun Gong. He steadfastly answered, "Even if I was beaten to death, I would continue practicing it in my next life." In front of many life and death tests, Fang Longchao demonstrated a [Falun] Dafa practitioner's unshakably firm belief in Dafa and established unprecedented great mighty virtue. The prison guards had a guilty conscience and felt afraid, so they didn't allow his family to meet him. They were afraid that Fang would expose the true situation of their brutal persecution. They also shamelessly lied to his family, claiming that they never beat him. When Fang's family learned that one of Fang's ears was beaten to the point of deafness, they questioned the guards. The evil prison guards even completely denied it. Under such unendurable duress, at the end of 2001 Fang Longchao wrote a 13-page appeal statement, stating that the charges against him were invalid and inconsistent with the facts and with the country's Constitution. From January 15 (lunar calendar), 2002, he began a hunger strike to protest his illegal detention and asked for his unconditional release. Fang has been on hunger strike for one month now and his life is in extreme danger.

We appeal to all governments and people around the world that support justice to urgently rescue Fang Longchao!