How Falun Dafa Practitioner Sun Lianxia in Dalian, Liaoning Province Was Tortured to Death

Falun Dafa practitioner Sun Lianxia from Dalian City, Liaoning Province was illegally arrested by the police on her way to Beijing to appeal in Autumn of 2000. Because she firmly cultivated Falun Dafa, she was sent to Dalian City Forced Labour Camp. She went on hunger strike for 26 days to protest the evil persecution and passed away on January 16, 2001.

I know her from volunteering on some projects related to Dafa. We were together often until she passed away.

After her arrest by the police, we were detained together in the Dalian Drug Rehabilitation Centre. The place was no longer a place to rehabilitate drug addicts, but rather a place used to persecute and brainwash innocent Falun Dafa practitioners. After two months, she was considered to be very uncooperative and sent to the Dalian Forced Labour Camp.

During the time when Sun Lianxia was detained in Dalian Forced Labour Camp, both her in-laws passed away. She did not waver in her determination to cultivate Dafa despite suffering the loss of her family members. About one week after her in-laws died, policeman Lin Yi found out we were practicing the exercises in the evening before sleeping. He punched and kicked all of us, young or old. The next day, the police escalated their persecution against us.

We were lying down on our bed, silently reciting Teacher Li's teachings. We all enlightened to not passively accept the persecution and to create an upright exercise environment. So the very next day on December 18, 2000, more than 80 Falun Dafa practitioners went on a group hunger strike. The police were frightened. They tried all sorts of tough and soft methods to dissuade us. Finally, they resorted to force-feeding when nothing worked. To force-feed us, two policemen pressed a practitioner down on a chair and a tube was forced down his or her throat. The group of policemen either helped with the force-feeding or stood there and cursed us. The force-feeding increased from once every other day to every day, then twice a day. The prison doctor used a thick tube and a funnel to force food down our throat. Every time when the police were force-feeding, echoes of our pain could be heard in the hallway. The police harassed us while the practitioners cried out in pain and vomited. The scenes were too painful to watch. One female policewoman with some compassion went to a corner to cry because she could not bear to watch anymore.

One week after the hunger strike, Sun Lianxia's nasal cavity, throat and oesophagus became infected from the force-feeding. Blood and pus oozed from her injured nose to cover her pale face. She had to breathe through her mouth, and she would often have to spit blood and pus. She had to use more than one roll of paper to clean herself every day. The police could hardly force-feed her through her mouth, let alone through her nose.

On the evening of the 17th or 18th day into the hunger strike, Sun Lianxia experienced severe abdominal pain. She felt movement in her internal organs. More than ten practitioners were locked in an isolated storage room, where they slept on straw mattresses on the floor. The police did not let anyone near them. She did not want to disturb the others who were sleeping and passed out from the extreme pain. She awoke at dawn.

The next day, we were forced to sit on a stool measuring 10 cm, in height and 20 cm. in diameter. Our hands were handcuffed behind our backs and we were separated in different corners of the room. One female inmate watched us to keep us from talking.

Sun Lianxia was very thin, like a skeleton. Her face was a little swollen and she walked wobbly. The police handcuffed her and forced her to the hospital when she resisted. She was given four infusions. They used a spoon to force-feed her because the tubes could no longer be inserted through her nose or mouth. Her hunger strike lasted for 26 days.

The police went to an extreme in treating the steadfast practitioners who didn't cooperate with them. They separated the practitioners into groups. Sun Lianxia was placed in the third room on the third floor. She then had her first meal after her hunger strike with the others. After she ate a little, however, her head became heavy and weak. She could not lift her head and her hands were shaking.

The next morning at 7 am, when the police forced Dafa practitioners to do the morning exercises, Sun Lianxia did not come down from the building. Team Leader Sui Ziqiang found out and forced another practitioner to look for her. He said cruelly, "Carry her out if you have to!" After a half hour, the practitioner came back and reported, "Sun Lianxia cannot walk; she cannot even stand up." Sui Ziqiang heard this, went upstairs and ordered Sun Lianxia to sit up.

Sun Lianxia was forced to sit from 7:30 am until 10:30 am until she collapsed. Sui Ziqiang saw that she was on the verge of death. Two policewomen sent her to the Central Municipal Hospital, but Sun Lianxia passed away the next day on January 16, 2001.

We hope that all kind-hearted people will express your concerns and together, stop this persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners.