High School Teacher Mr. Wei Xingzhi Passes Away after Enduring Years of Persecution

Mr. Wei Xingzhi was a chemistry teacher at the Ziyun County No. 2 High School. Because Mr. Wei refused to give up his belief in Falun Gong, he was subjected to multiple arrests and maltreatment by officials from the Ziyun County Police Department, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and the Zhongba Forced Labour Camp in Guizhou Province. While incarcerated, he was forced to do hard labour and was subjected to severe beatings, which caused him to suffer from nausea, dizziness, headache, chest pain, and he was coughing up blood. Mr. Wei died on December 3rd, 2009, at the age of 48.

1. Detained and Home Ransacked

Mr. Wei Xingzhi started to practise Falun Gong in 1996. Soon after that, he stopped many of his bad habits, such as smoking and gambling. In addition, his health improved greatly and he was free of illness.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began, officers from the Ziyun County Police Department ransacked Mr. Wei's home on April 4th, 2000, confiscated many of his personal belongings, and detained him for two weeks.

The police arrested Mr. Wei again on September 18th, 2001, and detained him until October 19th. They forced him to pay 2,000 yuan¹ before releasing him.

Only three months later, on January 20th, 2002, police officers from the Ziyun County Police Department again arrested Mr. Wei and sentenced him to three years of forced labour. He was detained and maltreated at the Zhongba Forced Labour Camp in Guizhou Province.

2. Forced to Perform Hard Labour and Exposed to Toxic Substances

While detained at the Zhongba Labour Camp, Mr. Wei was forced to do hard labour and exposed to toxic substances. Every day, he had to work for more than 12 hours without pay. The only thing he received was 0.07 yuan for medical expenses.

The room in which the detainees had to work was tiny. It was 40 square metres with dim light, in which 30 people had to work, along with the equipment. In addition, they were exposed to toxic substances, which were produced when they welded together lanterns.

Because the ventilation in the room was poor, detainees were forced to inhale a large amount of toxic gas. When they were given a physical examination, most of them had severe problems with their lungs. Mr. Wei suffered from nausea, dizziness, headaches, chest pain, and he was coughing up blood.

If anyone didn't finish the work quota assigned by guards, this person was punished. The guards would take the person to a dark room and subject him to severe beatings, which sometimes incapacitated the person for more than two weeks and at times led to death.

3. Arms Covered with Bloody Wounds

Mr. Wei's wife visited him once with their two little daughters during the summer. When she noticed that he wore a long-sleeve shirt on such a hot day, she rolled up the sleeves and saw that his arms were covered with bloody wounds. When she started to ask about the injuries, the guards ended the visit and hastily led her out of the labour camp.

After this visit, Mr. Wei wrote on a piece of paper the torture he had endured. During his wife's next visit, he was about to give the paper to her when a guard saw it. Immediately, three guards dragged Mr. Wei out of the visitation room in front of his wife and daughters and severely beat him. One of them told him, "You will be put in solitary confinement for four days. No one can visit you in the next three months." Subsequently, the police searched his wife and daughters, and then bundled them off. His wife and daughters had to leave with tears streaming down their faces.

Officials in the forced labour camp repeatedly forced Falun Gong practitioners to write statements to give up Falun Gong. Anyone who didn't write them suffered from severe torture. A guard ordered three to five prisoners to gang up and beat one practitioner. In addition to punches and kicks, they also used electric prods to shock their sensitive parts. Sometimes, they put a book on a practitioner's chest or back and then hit the book with a large hammer. This caused internal injuries without any obvious external injuries.

A deputy head from the forced labour department was assigned to be the head of the 610 Office in Guizhou Province. He then set up 610 Office agents in different sections of the forced labour camp, and built rooms for torturing practitioners. While this went on, most of the other guards and prisoners knew nothing about it. They also reduced the sentences of prisoners that participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.

4. Subjected to Brainwashing and Mentally Tortured

The guards at the Zhongba Forced Labour Camp used various methods to wear down the practitioners' spirit. They had some members of academia come to slander Falun Gong, and they forced practitioners to watch videos that slandered Teacher Li (the founder of Falun Gong) and Falun Gong for long periods of time. In addition, they tried to force practitioners to write articles that slandered Falun Gong after watching the videos. Those who refused were subjected to severe beatings, sleep deprivation, and other forms of abuse.

Mr. Wei was kept in a dark room for 21 days. He was given a tiny amount of water and food that had unknown drugs mixed in.

5. Return Home

Mr. Wei Xingzhi was released in 2005, after which he found out that his wife had been sentenced to three years of imprisonment in Guiyang City's Huaxiyangai Prison, leaving their two underage daughters at home. The home had no running water at the time, so the girls were collecting water from rainfall and dew.

After suffering long-term persecution and maltreatment, especially the three years of forced labour at the Zhongba Forced Labour Camp in Guizhou Province, Mr. Wei's health was severely compromised. However, officials from the Ziyun County Police Department and the 610 Office still harassed and threatened him, placing him under great pressure and causing his health to decline further. Mr. Wei Xingzhi passed away on December 3rd, 2009, at the age of 48.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/4/3/220900.html