55-Year-Old Ms. Yang Dongzhi Dies as a Result of Persecution

Ms. Yang Dongzhi in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province, was retired from the Saicheng Lake Aquatic Product Field. She endured cruel persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and passed away on July 10th, 2008.

Ms. Yang was 55 years old. After she started practising Falun Gong in 1996, her diseases disappeared. The CCP started persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. She went to Beijing to appeal on behalf of the practice. After she returned home, she was held in a detention centre for six months. The police there threatened and harassed her, and her blood pressure was as high as 180mmHg. In spite of her condition, the head of the 610 Office¹, Li Jianhua (who died recently), first tried to send her to Nanchang Forced Labour Camp. The camp authorities took her blood pressure and refused to accept her. Li Jianhua then decided to send her to the newly-established Women's Division of Majialong Forced Labour Camp in Jiujiang City. He threatened that there they would make her yield and give up her faith.

When Ms. Yang arrived at Majialong Forced Labour Camp, the guards confined her in a dark room. She stayed in that small cell--about three square metres--for three months, unable to leave for any reason. She had to use a bucket in the cell as a toilet. The drug criminals and guards abused and harassed her every day in attempts to force her into giving up her faith. Guards were alternately deceptively kind and brutal. Seeing that she did not waver, they hung her up by her handcuffed wrists. On September 12th, 2001, guard Qu Xiaoqiang in Majialong hung her up with her arms crossed, which caused her to faint. But the guards didn't care. She fainted again at 3:00 a.m. on September 14th. During the daytime the guards released her handcuffs and measured her blood pressure at 280mmHg, on the verge of death, so they ordered her family to take her home.

In 2004, Ms. Yang distributed flyers that explained the truth about Falun Gong and was arrested again. She managed to escape, but her son was detained. In October 2005, agents from the 610 Office and 30 policemen surrounded her house and forced open her door, but her son protected her with his body. The two sides confronted each other for two hours, causing her to have a heart attack. Seeing that she was in critical condition, the police left.

In 2008 the chief of Saicheng Lake Police Station and a gang of officers broke into the resident's house and arrested six practitioners. They were sent to forced labour camps in Nanchang and Jiujiang cities. Sadly, Ms. Yang Dongzhi passed away. Many people remembered her earnest voice. Many confused people were awakened by her warm heart. A former drug criminal, Chen Zhen, recalled that when her addiction recurred, she was detained with Ms. Yang. No one cared for her, and she laid in bed in her own waste. It was Ms. Yang Dongzhi who washed her and cleaned her bed up for her.

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.cc/mh/articles/2008/9/16/185982.html