An Account of 17 Torture Deaths in the Qingdao Area, Shandong Province

At least 39 torture deaths of Falun Gong practitioners in the Qingdao Area alone have been verified since the persecution started, covering the period between 1999-2010. In addition, more than 1,000 practitioners were sentenced to forced labour camps or prisons; and at least 60 practitioners were injected with drugs known to damage the central nervous system, shocked with electric needles, or were force-fed at mental hospitals. Many more people faced torture, brainwashing sessions, intimidation, and monetary extortion at various brainwashing and detention facilities.

Some practitioners who have died from the persecution

Here we list 17 cases of practitioners who have died as a result of abuse and torture:

1. Mr. Zou Songtao

Mr. Zou Songtao graduated from Nanjing University and received a Master's degree in Oceanic Biology from Qingdao's Ocean University in July 1999.

Mr. Zou was arrested on May 30th, 2000 for organising a Falun Gong practitioner experience-sharing conference. While in detention he was handcuffed to a metal chair and brutally beaten. As a result of the beating, his face and the back of his head was severely swollen. He was released one month later. On July 18th, 2000 Mr. Zou was deceived into going to the Qingdao City Police Department where, upon arrival, he was told he would have to undergo a three-year forced labour “re-education” term. Without informing his family, the police transferred Zou Songtao to Wangcun Forced Labour Camp in Zibo City, Shandong Province on September 26th, 2000.

In October 2000, Mr. Zou and other detained practitioners were sent to solitary confinement, to go through an intensive torture session. They were stripped, and shocked with electric batons several times a day. With each holding a 100,000-voltage electric baton, more than ten guards hit the practitioners simultaneously, leaving wounds everywhere on the victims.

The morning of November 3rd, 2000, guards Zheng Wanxin, Shao Zhenghua and a few others brought Mr. Zou into an interrogation room. After two hours of torture he died at 11:30 a.m. that day, at the age 28. The local police hastily cremated his body on November 4th and intimidated his family, threatening them to not disclose any information to the outside world.

Mr. Zou’s wife Zhang Yunhe used to be the chief accountant for the German-based Qingdao Derui Company. She was once arrested in 2000 when she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. In February 2002 she was arrested again, this time in Qingdao. Ms. Zhang was incarcerated in the Qingdao Dashan Detention Centre for at least half a year. Ever since that time, her whereabouts have been unknown.

The couple’s daughter is named Farong. When she was around three years old she often stepped on a little stool to reach her father’s funeral urn and kissed it. She told others innocently that her daddy was in heaven. Sometimes she would ask, “When will mummy come back home? I miss mummy!”

(Full story: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/1/20/31124.html )

2. Mr. Li Yinglin

Mr. Li Yinglin, an employee of the Sifang Rolling Stock Plant (SRSP) under the Ministry of Railways in Qingdao, went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on November 5th, 2003 and was arrested shortly afterwards. Director Liu of the SRSP and Dai Quanguo, head of the Huayanglu Street Committee, later went to Beijing to pick him up. They drove him home around 9:00 a.m. on November 14th. His whole body appeared deformed from the beatings he received in Beijing. He had a blank look in his eyes, his legs were swollen, and he quivered all the time. Two people had to carry him inside. He could not walk. His mouth had almost turned black from being shocked with an electric baton. He could not talk, nor could he eat.

His wife immediately took Mr. Li to the No. 7 Hospital where he slipped into a coma that same night. During the few days in the hospital he was vomiting and discharging blood. Li sustained internal injuries from the beating; all of his toenails were broken off; a square piece of flesh was cut out of his left heel, his whole back was purple, and other areas of his body were covered in blue and purple patches.

By 10:00 a.m. on November 16th, Mr. Li’s condition deteriorated further. After he was transferred to the emergency room his blood pressure could no longer be measured. He kept coughing, with blood coming from his mouth. Emergency section head Sun initiated an emergency procedure for resuscitation and a CAT scan. He concluded that Li’s liver was swollen, his intestines were damaged, and there were severe internal injuries from the beating. Mr. Li died on November 20th, 2003.

(Full story: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/4/27/47453.html )

3. Ms. Wang Xiaoli

On March 19th, 2002, practitioner Ms. Wang Xiaoli from Qingdao City, Shandong Province, died as a result of persecution, at the age of 35.

Ms. Wang worked at the Number 10 National Textile Factory in Qingdao City and lived in the Haiqin Square community in the city's Sifang District.

Wang Xiaoli and her practitioner husband travelled to his parents' home on February 7th or 8th, 2002, to spend the Chinese New Year holiday. Along the way they distributed truth-clarifying materials that exposed the persecution of Falun Gong. Because someone reported them, the Langye Town Police Station officials in Jiaonan City sent four police officers to arrest them and detained them at the police station, where the couple was interrogated separately until midnight. Ms. Wang’s husband later escaped.

Langye police informed the Qingdao City 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) to take Ms. Wang back to Qingdao. After keeping her for one month in the Dashan Detention Centre, Luoyang Street Police Station officials disregarded the laws regarding illegally extended her detention and held her for another week. She was eventually transferred to a 610 Office Brainwashing Centre in Qingdao City where she was sentenced to 18 months of forced labour without any legal process. The police sent Wang Xiaoli to Shandong Province Forced Labour Camp in Wangcun, Zibo City, on March 19th, 2002.

The day she arrived at the camp, Ms. Wang escaped, went to Qingdao City and temporarily stayed at a friend's home. One day while using the phone to contact her mother, the police picked up her conversation. That same night, a group of police headed by Chen Guolei, Luoyang Police Station chief, policeman Zhuang, Luoyang Street Residential Committee head Xu Zhaozhen, and someone with the surname Han arrested her. While the police were kicking the door, Ms. Wang climbed out of her window and then into her neighbour's apartment. Police waiting outside the apartment building spotted her escape and immediately went upstairs to kick open the neighbour's door. Ms. Wang, in a hurry to get away from the officers, jumped from the fifth floor, unfortunately to her death.

(More information: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/3/45694.html ; http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/4/18/59745.html )

4. Mr. Li Jingdong

Mr. Li Jingsheng began to practise Falun Gong in 1998 out of his desire to get rid of his bad temper. The practice enabled him to understand the real meaning of life and turned him into a mild-mannered man. He became extremely gentle and caring toward his two children and was much more filial toward his mother. Witnessing the positive changes in him, his son Xinggang also started to practise and became a much more diligent student who saw his academic performance improve rapidly.

Mr. Li and his 57-year-old sister took his 15-year-old son to Tiananmen Square on November 3rd, 2001 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. They were arrested and sent to the Tiananmen Police Station where the police whipped him all over the head and body with a leather belt. He was bloody everywhere and lost consciousness.

The morning of November 6th, 2001 Mr. Li was forcibly escorted back to the Yunshan Town Police Station. The abusive police handcuffed him to a tree and whipped him with an electrical cord that was made up of three smaller wires. At night they handcuffed him to a leg of a bed and forbade him to sleep.

Mr. Li was steadfast and went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. The police force-fed him so brutally that he was nearly dead from the torture. Six days later he was sent back to the Pingdu City Police Department. He died in pain nine days later, on November 21st, 2001, at the age of 41. Before the funeral, when his family members tried to change his clothes, they found that his blood-soaked clothes were stuck to him and could not be removed.

(More information: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/1/31/44597.html ; http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2002/1/15/17748.html )

5. Mr. Zhong Zhenfu

Mr. Zhong Zhenfu, 58, and his wife Ms. Zhong Shuhua, 56, lived in Zhongjia Village, Changle Town, Pingdu City, Shandong Province. Between July 1999 when the persecution began and 2008, the local police harassed him on 55 occasions, ransacked his home numerous times and looted cash in the amount of close to 10,000 yuan¹. His elderly mother lived in fear every day.

At around 6:00 p.m. on May 4th, 2008, more than 30 officers from the Pingdu City 610 Office and the Police Department stormed into homes that Falun Gong practitioners had rented as truth-clarification materials production sites in Pingdu City. They arrested Ms. Xu Aifang, Ms. Liu Jiyu, Mr. Wang Yunchong, and Mr. Zhong Zhenfu. In addition, they confiscated a computer, two printers, a CD burner, a copy machine, two satellite dish systems, two electric vehicles, and Falun Gong books. That same night the police forced each of these practitioners to sit in a metal chair and interrogated them. When the practitioners refused to reveal any information, the officers scalded them with boiling water.

Three days later the practitioners were taken to the Pingdu City Detention Centre where the guards shackled Mr. Zhong and whipped him on the head with metal wires. Even though he was in critical condition after this abuse, the guards next put him in a metal cage, still in shackles. When he refused to curse the founder of Falun Gong as the guards demanded, they whipped him with metal wires again. The beating lasted for over an hour. Finally, a kind person persuaded them to stop by telling them that Mr. Zhong was from his hometown. By then Mr. Zhong was injured so severely that he was unable to stand up by himself.

The guards sent Mr. Zhong to the hospital. The doctor told them that his injuries were very serious. To avoid any responsibility, the detention centre officials released him on medical parole. When his family went to pick him up, they noticed his ankles, still shackled, were extremely swollen. He had to stay in the hospital for treatment for over a month and pay over 10,000 yuan in medical expenses. Mr. Zhong died on July 20th, 2008.

(Full story: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/8/1/99433.html )

6. Ms. Xiao Sumin

Xiao Sumin

Ms. Xiao Sumin was an employee of the Pingdu Vegetable Oil Factory. She was arrested along with another practitioner on May 30th, 2008 and sent to the Qingdao Third Detention Centre in June. She went on a hunger strike to protest. The guards commanded detainees Wang Xinjing and others to brutally force-feed Ms. Xiao for three days in a row. She was on the verge of death at the end of the torture. The guards sent her to the emergency room at the Haici Hospital in Qingdao City where she was immediately put on oxygen. When her daughter Yanzi visited her she was still in ICU and had to rely on a ventilator to breathe. Due to the severe torture she had previously suffered, Ms. Xiao died within three weeks of her arrival at the hospital.

(More information: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2008/6/27/98483.html )

7. Mr. Sui Guangxi

Mr. Sui Guangxi and his wife were Falun Gong practitioners from Xiangyangling Village, Niuxibu Township, Laixi City, Shandong Province. Mr. Sui was a kind hearted carpenter, and everyone who had contact with him commented that he was a dependable man to do business with. After the persecution began, however, he was harassed, arrested and detained numerous times.

At midnight on September 17th, 2002, villager Ding Xiangyu, with 11 police officers and staff members from the local police station and village government, scaled the fence of Mr. Sui's yard, broke in and forcibly dragged him and his wife into a police van. The couple were held at an elementary school for four days before being transferred to the 610 Office in Laixi City, where they were forced to listen to broadcasts slandering Falun Gong. When Mr. Sui refused to cooperate with the brainwashing attempts, he was subjected to various torture. The police punched him in the head, did not give him anything to eat or drink, and did not allow him to use the toilet. About 20 days later Mr. Sui found a chance to escape. By then he had oedema all over his body, and his family had to send him to Pingdu Hospital for treatment. He stayed there for two months, but the doctors couldn’t give a good diagnosis except saying he had nephritis. He died on July 4th, 2003.

(Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2003/9/7/39998.html )

8. Ms. Zhu Meijuan

Ms. Zhu Meijuan, born on November 7th, 1966, was a worker in the Boiler Metal Configuration Factory of Qingdao City. She died at age 38 as a result of the persecution carried out by the Jiaozhou City Police Department on March 14th, 2004.

Because Ms. Zhu distributed Falun Gong materials, plainclothes police targeted her and began to follow her. At around 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 14th, 2004, five people from the Jiaozhou City Police Department and the 610 Office shouted and smashed in the door of her apartment, attempting to forcibly bring her to the police department for interrogation. Ms. Zhu explained the facts of Falun Gong to them, but they kept at the door for over two hours and attempted to arrest her. She sought a way to escape, and climbed down the drainpipe from the sixth floor. When she reached the third floor the pipe broke, and she fell to her death.

(More information: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/10/9/53310.html )

9. Mr. Liu Liang

Mr. Liu Liang was a 24-year-old practitioner from Daheliu Village, Zhangying Township, Jiaozhou, City, Shandong Province. He was arrested at the end of September 2006 and held at the Jiaozhou City Detention Centre for two weeks. In May 2007 Qingdao 610 Office agents ordered the Jiaozhou 610 Office to not close his case so they could sentence him.

Six plainclothes police broke into Mr. Liu's home on June 5th, 2007. They raided it in his absence without showing any documents.

The police continued to watch Mr. Liu's home on June 6 and asked neighbours if he was in. The next day a villager discovered his body in a well, with his motorbike nearby. The man reported it to the police; three police cars arrived. Many villagers surrounded the scene.

Local 610 Office head Wang Ronghai went to Mr. Liu's home afterwards. The persecutors tried to cover up their crimes and claimed that he committed suicide because of practising Falun Gong. They knew they were the criminals and they tried to force his family to not pursue the case. They told his family members to come to the Zhangying Town Police Station on June 13th to discuss compensation for his death.

(More information: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/6/22/86991.html ; http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2007/7/4/87329.html )

10. Mr. Qian Dongcai

Mr. Qian Dongcai from Qingdao City was arrested by agents from the Shinan Sub-Bureau in Qingdao City on September 25th, 2003 and subsequently incarcerated at Qingdao City No. 1 Detention Centre.

Mr. Qian was sentenced in early 2005 and sent to Jinan Prison. The guards urged criminal detainee Qu Guangwen and others to beat him savagely, to forbid him to sleep, and to force him to squat for long periods. Mr. Qian died about 20 days later, on February 4th, 2005, as a result of persecution, at the Internal Medicine Department’s Emergency Unit at the Jinan Central Hospital. The “Patient Diagnostic Certificate” read “sudden death” in the “examination result” column. He was 48 years old.

(Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/11/8/79756.html )

11. Ms. Liu Shu’e

Ms. Liu Shu’e, 60, was a resident of Sundong Village, Chengyang District in Qingdao City, Shandong Province. She benefited greatly – in body and mind – after she started practising Falun Gong. Many illnesses she had suffered from for a long time, such as diabetes, coronary disease, arteriosclerosis, among others, all disappeared. In November 1999 Ms. Liu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, and police arrested her. She was held twice at the Dashan Detention Centre in Qingdao City, each time for 15 days, and her home was ransacked twice. Ms. Liu was transferred from the Dashan Detention Centre to a mental hospital where she was tortured for one month. When the police eventually attempted to send her to the mental hospital for a second time, she firmly resisted. Five police officers failed to drag her down [to their vehicle]. They had no choice but to keep her at the detention centre. Ms. Liu was released during the 2003 Chinese New Year. Within two weeks of her return she became paralysed due to the injuries suffered while in custody. Even so, the police still kept harassing her at her home, which caused Ms. Liu further mental trauma and subsequent physical deterioration. She died in late 2003.

(Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2005/11/10/66717.html)

12. Ms. Zhang Fuzhen

Ms. Zhang Fuzhen was a 38-year-old practitioner from Pingdu City, Shandong Province who was employed at the city’s Xianhe Park. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in November 2000 and was arrested shortly afterwards. While the police brought her back, she jumped out of the police vehicle, injuring her hip. The police sent Ms. Zhang to the People's Hospital, where the doctors concluded she had no life-threatening conditions. During the entire treatment in the hospital her mind was clear and she was able to sit up and meditate. According to an eyewitness, the police stripped her of her clothes and shaved her head. They tortured and humiliated her. She was tied on a bed in a spread eagle position and had to relieve herself on the bed. The police then injected her with unknown substances. As soon as the drug went into her, she felt unbearable pain and struggled, as if she was being driven out of her mind. She died very painfully. The 610 Office officials witnessed the entire course of her death.

(Related articles: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2001/5/1/9172.htm l; http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2004/6/7/48981.html; http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/2/20/123358.html )

13. Ms. Yu Guizhen

Fifty-five-year-old Ms. Yu Guizhen lived in Chengguan Town, Pingdu City, Shandong Province. Her last arrest was in August 2003 (by the lunar calendar). While distributing leaflets exposing the persecution in a wholesale market, 610 Office staff Dai Yugang shoved Ms. Yu to the ground, punched and kicked her, and then took her into custody. The 610 Office sent her against her will to Tonghe Mental Hospital. Since she refused to cooperate with her persecutors, the police tied her to a bed and forced her to swallow a handful of pills of unknown content. They also ordered doctors to inject Ms. Yu with medicine that harms the central nervous system. Afterward she became listless; her mouth was distorted, and she drooled uncontrollably. She was drowsy all day and often fell unconscious.

After seeing the shocking extent of Ms. Yu’s torture, her family went to great difficulty to pay bribes to bring her home. The police extorted 10,000 yuan from them. Once at home, Ms. Yu felt extreme pain throughout her entire body, and one of her legs was paralysed. It was so painful that she could barely move and could not practice the Falun Gong exercises. The police still would not leave her alone. They frequently harassed and threatened her at her home. Her husband was so intimidated that he dared not report their crimes. Ms. Yu died on November 13th, 2003.

(Full story: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/8/13/51338.html )

14. Mr. Wang Congbai

Jiaozhuo 610 Office agents arrested Mr. Wang Congbai, a 62-year-old practitioner from Jiaozhou City and an employee of the No. 7 Construction Company of the China National Petroleum Corporation, for distributing Falun Gong materials. He was detained at the Zhangjiatun Brainwashing Centre, where 610 Office head Wang Qiang led a group of subordinates and brutally tortured and critically injured him. Mr. Wang died at home, not long after his release.

(Related articles: http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2004/1/8/43921.html; http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/9/7/110649.html )

15. Ms. Lu Xiufang

Ms. Lu Xiufang was a 56-year-old practitioner and a farmer from Longhezhuan Village, Huashan Town, Jimo City, Shandong Province. One day in 2001 she was arrested while distributing Falun Gong materials on the street. She was sentenced to four years' incarceration and sent to Jinan Women's Prison where she was brutalised to the point that the guards had to rush her to the Shandong Province Prison Hospital in July 2003 for emergency treatment. To escape responsibility, the guards had Ms. Lu's family pick her up on July 21st, 2003. Less than two hours after she was brought home, she died of torture-induced injuries.

(Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/11/7/42032.html )

16. Mr. Zhang Shouqian

Mr. Zhang Shouqian, former Water Conservation Station director from Haiqing Town, Jiaonan, Shandong Province, was arrested in July 2002 and sent to a brainwashing centre. Participating were Jiaonan Police Department agents and agents from the 610 Office. While in detention Mr. Zhang was beaten, cursed at, and deprived of sleep, food and water. He was also forced to watch videos that slandered Falun Gong and to write the “Three Statements” to renounce practising Falun Gong. Moreover, they force-fed Mr. Zhang with unknown drugs. He was transferred back to the Haiqing Police Station in Jiaonan in November 2002 and died there in December 2002.

(Related article: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/5/21/35985.html )

17. Mr. Shi Hongjie

Mr. Shi Hongjie was a 44-year-old practitioner from the Sunjia District in Wubei Village, Laixi City, Shandong Province. The night of October 28th, 2002 the police ransacked his home and arrested him. He was viciously beaten while detained at the Laixi City Police Department. He died of torture-induced injuries in a hospital on November 18th, 2002.

The sight of Mr. Shi’s body was horrifying: he was covered with bruises and wounds; his temples and fingers were bruised; his feet were covered with blisters; and there was a long wound where his abdomen had been beaten. According to the autopsy report, he suffered a brain haemorrhage from the beatings. Four of his ribs, one finger and one toe had been broken. He had cuts and bruises all over his body. The medical reasons listed as cause of death were internal bleeding from his organs, and the extreme wasting away of his liver and stomach.

(Related articles: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/6/30/37530.html; http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2003/1/17/31009.html )

Partial List of Practitioners from the Qingdao Area that Have Died as a Result of Persecution

1. Li Qisheng (male, 70, Jiaozhou City)
2. Zhao Yuezhen (female, 48, Jiaozhou City)
3. Zhu Meijuan (female, 36, Jiaozhou City)
4. Wang Congbai (male, 62, Jiaozhou City)
5. Xu Zengliang (male, 29, Jiaonan City)
6. Ma Lizhi (male, 37, Jiaonan City)
7. Cui Dezhen (male, 29, Laixi City)
8. Shi Hongjie (male, 44, Laixi City)
9. Li Jingdong (male, 41, Pingdu City)
10. Zhang Fuzhen (female, 38, Pingdu City)
11. Yu Guizhen (female, 55, Pingdu City)
12. Zhao Mingxiang (male, 46, Pingdu City)
13. Sui Guangxi (male, age unknown, Laixi City)
14. Li Yingli (male, age unknown, Qingdao City)
15. Lu Xiufang (female, 56, Jimo City)
16. Zou Songtao (male, 28, Qingdao City)
17. Liu Chun (male, 28, Qingdao City)
18. Liu Jiming (female, 61, Qingdao City)
19. Wang Xiaoli (female, 35, Qingdao City)
20. Wang Suqin (female, 70, Qingdao City)
21. Zhang Shouqian (male, age unknown, Jiaonan City)
22. Chang Shuzhen (female, age unknown, Qingdao City)
23. Geng Xuezhi (female, 50, Pingdu City)

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2011/6/14/242423.html