Ms. Li Dongqing Tortured to Death after Many Years of Incarceration for Practising Falun Gong

Name: Li Dongqing
Gender: Female
Age: 49
Address: Suichuan Road, Heping District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China
Occupation: Laboratory Technician
Date of Death: Early 2011
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 24th, 2008
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shenyang City Psychiatric Hospital
City: Shenyang
Province: Liaoning
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, forced labour, brainwashing, forced injections/drug administration, beatings, imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, force-feedings, mental hospital, detention
Key Persecutors: Su Jing from Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

Ms. Li Dongqing, a Falun Gong practitioner from Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, died aged 49 in early 2011. Before she passed away, she was incarcerated in a psychiatric institution, where she was so severely tortured that she collapsed mentally.

Ms. Li Dongqing was first arrested in September 1999. For practising Falun Gong, she was sentenced to three years in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, which is notorious for its numerous reports of human rights' violations. After three years in Masanjia and before she was released, she was immediately sentenced to another five years in Dabei Women's Prison in Liaoning Province [because she refused to give up her belief]. After that, she was sent to a psychiatric institution, where she continued to be tortured [for refusing to renounce Falun Gong.]

Ms. Li was subjected to a long litany of torture, including long periods of solitary confinement, brutal beatings, electric shock, verbal insults, etc. For 18 months she spent about 97% of the time in solitary confinement with wounds and bruises all over her body. At one point she suffered a mental collapse. Her story is very typical of the tortures Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to in China. The facts about the persecution Ms. Li endured have been reported to the United Nations.

Ms. Li was born in 1962. She was 5'7” with an amiable face. She lived on Suichuan Road in the Heping District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province. She was working as a lab technician in the Xinchengzi Chemical Plant in Shenyang City until she was laid off when the plant reduced its work force in the 1990s. She was suffering from nephritis, oedema, stomach problems, numbness in the limbs, cold hands and feet, and difficulty walking and climbing stairs. Large medical bills and the lack of income put her in financial difficulty. In 1996, Ms. Li started practising Falun Gong. All of her illnesses soon disappeared without any treatment. As a result, the financial burden was substantially reduced. Ms. Li became a volunteer assistant to help facilitate the free group practice of the Falun Gong exercises at Bayi Park in Shenyang City. She was known to be a kindhearted and innocent person. Because of her enthusiasm and selflessness, many people started practising Falun Gong.

Three Years of Torture in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started to suppress Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, under the direct order of then-chairman Jiang Zemin. China's media began to run hate propaganda against Falun Gong in order to justify its suppression. Because Ms. Li knew Falun Gong was not at all like what the state-run media portrayed, she decided to travel to Beijing and exercise her constitutional right to appeal for Falun Gong. However, the police stopped her before she made it to the State Appeals Office in Beijing. She ended up being arrested and detained in Shenyang City's Beijing Office. The next day the Suichuan Police Station transferred her back to Shenyang City and kept her in a local detention centre for 15 days. Then she was taken directly to Masanjia Forced Labour Camp and "sentenced" to three years in the camp. Her family was not notified at all.

While incarcerated in Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, Ms. Li often explained what Falun Gong really is to prison guards and inmates. Because she did not commit any crime, Ms. Li refused to comply with the unreasonable rules and demands that the guards imposed on detained practitioners. As a result, Su Jing, warden of the Second Unit of the Camp, constantly subjected her to verbal insults and brutal beatings.

Between October 2001 and May 2002, Ms. Li was forced to spend nearly 90% of her time in solitary confinement. It is a torture that a person living in a normal environment could never imagine. She endured each and every day in solitary confinement yet never succumbed to violence, insults, or loneliness. During the six months of solitary confinement, Ms. Li called out "Falun Gong is good" every day and persevered in her belief.

Ms. Li's three-year term ended in September 2002, but Masanjia Forced Labour Camp made up charges against her [because she refused to renounce her belief in Falun Gong.] On August 22nd, 2002, Shenyang City Intermediate People's Court and Shenyang City Prosecutor's Office sent people to Masanjia where they had a show trial and sentenced her to five years in Dabei Women's Prison. She was denied the right to defend herself and to appeal. Her family was not notified. Two other Falun Gong practitioners were also "tried" that day, including Ms. Li Liming and Ms. Song Caihong. During the trial, the three practitioners shouted together "Falun Gong is good!" The guards immediately started to beat them up. Su Jing was witnessed shouting during the trial, "Increase the term to seven years!"

A practitioner who witnessed these proceedings recounted what she had seen: "In September 2002, guards [at Masanjia Forced Labour Camp] put Ms. Li Dongqing and two other practitioners in the canteen. They tried to make them renounce Falun Gong by beating them. Meanwhile, they had over 1,300 practitioners gather at the entrance of the canteen surrounded by a company of prison guards. That was where the 'public trial' took place. After Ms. Li was brought up to the 'stand', I saw bruises and wounds on her face. But I saw her steadfast belief in Falun Gong in her eyes. She declared, 'Falun Gong is good. Falun Gong is a righteous school of cultivation practice. We have done nothing wrong by practising Falun Gong and following its principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. We are trying to become better people. We have not committed any crime. We are innocent. We are being persecuted [for our personal belief].'

“No prison guard spoke. Silence followed. Practitioners present shouted, 'Falun Gong is good' and 'We are allowed to practice Falun Gong!' The guards went at those who shouted. The guards pulled their hair, covered their mouths, punched and kicked them, and pulled them away. The practitioners were thrown into a confinement room on the first floor with duct tape over their mouths. They were each given an additional three to six months in prison. “

Five Years in Dabei Women's Prison in Liaoning Province

Before Ms. Li Dongqing, Ms. Li Liming, and Ms. Song Caihong were transferred to Dabei Women's Prison, they were kept in Shenyang City Detention Centre for a month. The centre is in Wangtu Village, Sujiatun District, Shenyang City. They went on a hunger strike together as a non-violent means to protest the unconstitutional imprisonment. According to a practitioner incarcerated in Dabei Women's Prison at the time, Ms. Li was often kept in isolation.

She recalled, "Ms. Li Dongqing shouted 'Falun Gong is good' whenever she was brought here. On our way to and from from hard labour, Ms. Li's mouth was always sealed with duct tape. She would be carried by people who insulted her and beat her up. When the prison was open for visitors, Ms. Li would always be hidden."

Another practitioner recalled, "Ms. Li Dongqing, who was kept in Team One, suffered from the worst tortures. Guards often ordered inmates to beat her and torture her, but she never succumbed to them. When the prison relocated from Dabei to Masanjia, Ms. Li shouted 'Falun Gong is good' during the move, so a group of guards and inmates beat her. They stuffed something in her mouth and started to beat her. Every day she was locked in a back room. Because of the torture, we could hardly recognise her. The guards had a group of people watch her around the clock. To avoid witnesses, no one else was allowed in the bathroom except her and a guard."

At the end of December 2002, Ms. Li was diagnosed with acute hepatitis. Because it was infectious, Dabei Women's Prison tried to get her out on medical bail, but the request was denied by Suichuan Police Station. As a result, Ms. Li continued to be imprisoned despite her immediate need for medical attention.

At the beginning of 2003, Ms. Li went on a hunger and thirst strike as a non-violent means to protest the illegal imprisonment. She refused to wear the prison uniform, use prison blankets, or eat prison food because she did not commit any crime by practising Falun Gong. (The food was actually paid for by her family.) She asked that the ban on Falun Gong be lifted and the false charges against Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, be rescinded, because Falun Gong is a righteous school of cultivation practice. [Article 36 of the Chinese Constitution guarantees each Chinese citizen freedom of religious belief.] Two to four prison inmates were responsible for watching Ms. Li Dongqing. Because she refused to follow the unreasonable rules for practitioners, she was constantly subjected to verbal insults, beatings and electric shocks, which took a severe toll on her health. She often suffered oedema and fell ill from time to time.

Abused in Shenyang Psychiatric Hospital

On May 24th, 2008, over 40 practitioners were arrested, including Ms. Li Dongqing, who was under police surveillance after she was released from Dabei Women's Prison. The police threatened her family that they would send her to a psychiatric hospital or arrest her again. Eventually, her family gave in and fabricated false evidence to send her to a psychiatric hospital.

Ms. Li had just finished eight years in prison when her family succumbed to police threats and helped send her to Shenyang City Psychiatric Hospital. During 30 days of incarceration in the hospital, Ms. Li was injected with unknown drugs which caused her body to turn dark and the veins in her legs to bulge and turn dark. It took a severe toll on her physical and mental health.

During the involuntary incarceration, her husband filed for divorce and remarried. Ms. Li lost her home and her personal property. When she was first arrested in September 1999, her only daughter was still very young. After eight years without a mother, her daughter suffered from discrimination at school because Ms. Li was imprisoned for practising Falun Gong and was expelled from school. Her husband gave in to the pressure and forced their daughter to give up her belief in Falun Gong. The long periods of pressure and forced brainwashing changed the daughter's disposition. In order to get back into school, her daughter had to declare that she would sever all ties with Ms. Li Dongqing. Her daughter's statement was devastating news to Ms. Li.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/10/26/248361.html