Hu Zhiming Is Paralysed As a Result of Torture; His Family Releases More Details

Mr. Hu Zhiming is a Falun Dafa practitioner from Dandong City, Liaoning Province. He was a Masters candidate at the Beijing Air Force Headquarters. Lately, he was reported to have been tortured so much that he lost his ability to walk independently, and then was again persecuted in the prison hospital afterwards. (see previous report: http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200710/41474.html)

According to his family, Mr. Hu began a hunger strike on April 25th, 2006, in Nanshan Prison, Jingzhou City, to protest the persecution. More than a year and a half have passed. He was force-fed through the nose and tortured with other methods. The longest period of time he was tortured was seven or eight months in a row.

His family also said that Mr. Hu used to be very healthy but is now extremely weak. Because he could not walk, the muscles in his legs started to atrophy and he is now unable to walk. Doctors have said that he is in critical condition. His family sent a wheelchair to the prison for him to use a few months ago.

After graduating from the Air Force Engineer University with a Master's degree in 1997, Hu Zhiming started to work at the Institute of Beijing Air Force Training Equipment. He also started to practise Falun Dafa at the same time. He became a major and the deputy director of the Computer Office of the Institute in 1998 and was honoured with several awards.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and Jiang Zemin's, [former leader of China and instigator of the persecution] regime began persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, the military also persecuted their Falun Gong practitioners internally. The Beijing government delivered a confidential order in March 2000 to all workplaces to either arrest Falun Gong practitioners or put them under surveillance when the People's Congress was having meetings. In order to avoid the persecution, Mr. Hu left his job. However, the people from his place of work looked through his phone records and found him. He was arrested and detained somewhere in the Xishan area in Beijing for more than two months. He was watched by soldiers 24 hours a day, and subjected to brainwashing attempts by different people sent by the Air Force headquarters. They tried to make him give up his belief and practice of Falun Gong. Because Hu Zhiming didn't give up his belief, he was dismissed from his job and the military service and sent home in May 2000, although the national police requires graduates of military institutes to serve in the military for their entire lifetime.

After he went home, Hu Zhiming was often harassed by local police because of his steadfast belief in Falun Gong. In order to keep both himself and his family from being persecuted, he left home and lived a homeless existence. His family lost contact with him in September 2000. His parents received a notice in October 2001, stating that Hu Zhiming was detained in Shanghai and sentenced (without any legal procedures) to four years in prison due to his practice of Falun Gong. The family finally learned of Mr. Hu's whereabouts, but his mother had already lost her eyesight because she had wept so much for him.

While he was detained, Mr Hu kept practising Falun Gong and went on a long-term hunger strike to protest the persecution. His health became very poor. The government usually extended the terms of imprisonment without following legal procedures of Falun Gong practitioners who refused to be "transformed¹." The prison was afraid of being held responsible for Hu Zhiming's possible death due to poor health, so they informed his family to come to Shanghai to take him home. When the family arrived at the prison to pick him up, they noticed that he was very weak and had great difficulty walking. He appeared to be a totally different person from the one they had known.

After Hu Zhiming got home, he regained his health quickly through a short period of adjustment. He also taught himself some professional computer skills. The local police often went to check on him at home. In order to keep himself and his family from being persecuted further, Mr. Hu left for Beijing to try to find a job there. Then his family lost contact with him again. Later on, the family learned that he was reported to the police by a local neighbourhood committee member in Beijing because some DVDs leaflets exposing the persecution were seen at his residence. Hu Zhiming was then arrested by the police from the State Security Group, and his place was raided. He was detained for a long time and then sentenced to prison again.

Note

1. "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")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/11/30/167396.html