Mr. Xie Wutang Dies after Ten Years of Persecution

Name: Xie Wutang
Gender: Male
Age: 71
Address: Twelfth Railroad Bureau Family Housing in Jingwanzi Community, Tianxin District, Changsha City, Hunan Province
Occupation: Retired from Changsha Rail Road 12th Bureau
Date of Death: April 12th, 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 14th, 2007
Most Recent Place of Detention: Wuling Prison in Changde City
City: Changsha
Province: Hunan
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, hung up, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, rape, sexual assault, force-feedings, extortion, fired from workplace, physical restraint, mental hospital, home ransacked, interrogation, detention, denial of toilet use, denied visitation
Key Persecutors: Zhang Chengfa, Changde City Wuling Prison CCP secretary and the director: 86-736-7898188
Tang Guangming, deputy director: 86-736-7898046
Liu Jinxiu, CCP vice secretary: 86-736-7898277
Duan Zongxiang, instructor in the No. 3 Section of the No. 5 Ward where Mr. Xie was held: 86-15973632838 (Mobile), 86-13907421258(Mobile)
Fu Shengwen, Domestic Security Office head in Tianxin District Police Department: 86-736-85895079
Chen Qian, case officer: 86-13755103237 (Mobile)

Mr. Xie Wutang, 71, was a Falun Gong practitioner who lived in Changsha City, Hunan Province. He was detained and tortured in Wuling Prison. During this time Mr. Xie was unable to practise the Falun Gong exercises, and his health deteriorated considerably. Despite this, prison officials did not release Mr. Xie until he was in critical condition. Once he was released in March 2010, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The cancer spread throughout his body. The doctors said it was too late for surgery. He died on April 12th, 2011.

Before cultivating Falun Gong, Mr. Xie and his wife had all sorts of diseases. They began practising in 1996, and after only three months, the older couple felt great spiritually and physically. Their lives were content. After the persecution began on July 20th, 1999, the police stormed into their home at 2 a.m. on July 21st, 1999. They arrested his wife, Ms. Tan Xiangyu; detained her for 38 days; and extorted 4560 yuan¹ from the family. Mr. Xie went to the Hunan Province Government Appeals Office to tell how he became very healthy after practising Falun Gong, but he was arrested outside the office gate. He was detained for 22 days and had 220 yuan extorted from him. Their daughter went to Beijing to appeal. She was beaten and covered with injuries, detained for more than 20 days, had more than 4000 yuan extorted from her, and had more than one year of her regular salary withheld. Their son and daughter-in-law also went to appeal. They were detained and had 1400 yuan extorted from them.

After that, Xueyuanjie Station officers and the community administrators continued to harass them at home, trying to force them to write a guarantee statement to give up Falun Gong. They even made the elderly couple move out of their community, and threatened to seal their entry door with bricks. They moved to their son's place in Qidong County, where they were arrested. On October 8th, 2000, the police arrested Mr. Xie when he was distributing leaflets explaining the truth about Falun Gong in the Lengshuitan District of Yongzhou City. An officer punched him in the jaw and loosened his teeth. They released him after “fining” him 10,000 yuan, of which he had to pay 3000 yuan up front.

Mr. Xie and his wife went back home to spend Chinese New Year on January 24th, 2001. Officer You deceived Mr. Xie into leaving his home, seized him, and took him to Xinkaipu Forced Labour Camp on New Year's eve, saying that Mr. Xie had not paid the rest of the 10,000 yuan from the last time.

In the middle of the night on March 8th, 2001, the police arrested Mr. Xie's wife, Ms. Tan Xiangyu. They took her to Baimalong Women's Forced Labour Camp in Zhuzhou City, where she was tortured. She had tuberculosis and fluid in her chest and was dying. Her children bailed her out on medical parole on September 24th, 2001.

Before the Chinese New Year on February 12th, 2002, the police arrested the couple again for no reason. They also arrested their daughter. Their granddaughter sobbed. The bystanders all condemned the police for harming good people. The police had to release their daughter. Turning around, they hit Mr. Xie on the head in the vehicle. The couple was detained 15 days. When they returned home, it was Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. The children came to have lunch together. More than a dozen officers stormed in, and the couple had to move out of their home again.

On August 22nd, 2003, Ms. Tan was arrested at Friendship Shopping Mall and taken into custody at the Tianxin District Police Department. She was tortured for more than 12 hours. She was taken to Changsha City Detention Centre the next day and tortured. Her arms and legs were cuffed to a door, and she could not move for a long time.

Ms. Tan was sentenced to three and half years in prison in April 2004. She was taken to Hunan Woman's Prison in November 2004. Her lung developed holes. She could not eat and became very weak. Ms. Tan was tortured for a long time with sleep deprivation but was still expected to peel 60 pounds of fava beans a day. When she was on the verge of death and was bailed out on medical parole in September 2005, her liver failed and she vomited blood. She could not walk and was thin as a skeleton. When her son, in his 40s, came to pick her up and saw what a terrible state she was in, he cried.

On July 14th, 2007, Mr. Xie, in his late 60s at the time, was arrested by policeman Fu Shengwen and his accomplice from the Domestic Security Division of the Tianxin District. Later, he was sentenced to a five-year prison term by the Tianxin District Court. Mr. Xie was held and cruelly tortured in one facility after another, including the Changsha City Detention Centre and the No. 2 Detention and Transfer Centre of Changdejin City. He was finally transferred to Wuling Prison in Changde City.

While in the Changsha City Detention Centre, he passed out twice due to the severe torture and had to undergo emergency resuscitation. Mr. Xie's health quickly deteriorated, but the prison did not release him, nor did they allow him to receive treatment. After Mr. Xie was sentenced to the five-year term in prison, they took him to the Hunan Province Second Dispatch Centre even though he physically did not meet the standards.

Mr. Xie's children could not see their parents, who were held in detention for many months, or receive any mail from them. Everything that happened to them was completely concealed from their children. It was not until December 6th, 2007, that their children picked up the sentencing statement at the courthouse. Their daughter immediately went to the detention centre to visit her father but was turned away. They said his whereabouts was unknown. Finally they found him in the Second Dispatch Centre in Changde City on December 20th, 2007.

Mr. Xie was taken to Wuling Prison in February 2008. The authorities ignored Mr. Xie's condition. He was put in the strict control ward and deprived of visits for three months. His family asked that he be bailed out for medical reasons. The prison authorities wanted him to write the Three Statements to renounce practising Falun Gong as a condition. By February 2009, Mr. Xie's condition had become much worse.

On January 29th, 2010, when his family was able to visit him, he was walking with a cane. There were two people helping him, one on each side. He told his wife that he had been having difficulty walking and urinating for several months. In fact, Mr. Xie had been using a cane for over a year.

By February 24th, 2010, Mr. Xie was in critical condition. He was sent from Wuling Prison to the No. 5 Changde City Hospital for emergency treatment. The hospital issued a Notice of Terminal Illness to his family. The prison also phoned one of Mr. Xie's family members. The following day, Mr. Xie's wife rushed to the hospital. The doctor informed Ms. Tan of her husband's condition, saying that his hypertension was at a very dangerous level and that he had heart disease caused by the hypertension, enlargement of the heart, potential heart failure, gastrointestinal diseases caused by the hypertension, chronic kidney dysfunction (uraemia, pulmonary oedema, and pleural effusion in the kidney), and urinary tract stones. Mr. Xie's family saw that his whole body was bloated. In addition, he was hooked up to oxygen tubes and a heart monitor. He had IVs in both arms, a drainage bag, and devices attached to his feet. Even though he was unable to move, his foot was still cuffed to the bed at night by the police.

On March 1st, 2010, Mr. Xie was taken to the No. 1 Xiangyafu Hospital of Changsha City with two policemen monitoring him. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Later, the cancer spread to his bones and the doctor said surgery would no longer help. He was allowed out on medical parole when he was near death. After another year of suffering, he died at 4:35 a.m. on April 12th, 2011.

Earlier report: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/7/4/118320.html, http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/1/5/92942.html

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/2011/4/25/239560.html