FDI: Jiang Zemin’s Legacy Claims More Lives - Thirteen Falun Gong Practitioners Reported Dead After Abuse Under Jiang’s Regime

Reports of wrongful deaths pour in from China during Jiang’s North America tour

CNN lists persecution of Falun Gong and others the top blot on Jiang’s record

NEW YORK, November 6, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Centre) -- According to a CNN article published yesterday on the legacy of Chinese communist leader Jiang Zemin, at the very top of a list of "blots on the record" are human and religious rights violations. The abuse of Falun Gong is mentioned specifically as Jiang’s most egregious offence.

This analysis comes amid a stream of wrongful death reports received during Jiang’s visit to North America. Many China experts have likened Jiang’s persecution of the peaceful meditation practice to the bloody Mao-era campaigns that terrorized the Chinese people in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Sadly, however, the issue of Jiang’s persecution of Falun Gong practitioners was reportedly not raised during his visit with President Bush. We continue to request that the US government and President Bush raise the issue of Falun Gong with Jiang at every opportunity to stop the on-going torture and killing of innocent Chinese people.

Below are the stories of 13 more casualties in Jiang’s war of terror against his own people. If the families of these thirteen fallen could have spoken in Crawford, Texas, two weeks ago, perhaps their voices would have been heard.

What of the 100 million people who practiced Falun Gong in China just four years ago? Jiang has kept them silent, too.

The Story of a Hunted Man: Mr. Sun Died from Severe Torture

Sun Jihong was a hunted man. Unable to endure the unrelenting pressure put on him by Chinese police to give up Falun Gong, he was forced to flee his home in Heilongjiang province almost three years ago. Sun then travelled to Beijing to make a public appeal on Tiananmen Square for his rights to freedom of belief.

Arrested twice for his appeals, Sun each time protested his unjust detention by initiating a hunger strike. The first lasted 14 days, and the second one 9. Police, unable to force-feed him to their satisfaction, had to let him go. In September 2002, Sun was detained again, kidnapped by police while changing busses in Beijing.

This time, however, by the end of September, Sun was dead from severe torture.

When his family was finally permitted to see his body they found the corpse in a horrifying condition, and shortly afterwards police cremated his body without the family's permission. More details about Sun Jihong's death are under investigation, but police are withholding all information.

Sun’s case is not unusual -- in fact, the reports of harassment, ransacking of homes, beatings, detention, and death by torture continue to pour in unabated. Jiang Zemin’s often-desperate attempts to annihilate Falun Gong do take their toll. Families are broken, citizens are imprisoned, and the innocent are tortured and killed.

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Police Send Tortured Practitioners on Verge of Death Home to Escape Responsibility

Frequently Falun Gong practitioners are tortured, beaten and abused to the verge of death in an attempt to force them into renouncing their belief in and practice of Falun Gong. Often a "guarantee statement" is presented to the practitioner with the promise that if they sign the statement promising to quit practicing, they will be released. To the chagrin of officials and police, methods of coercion, torture, beatings, threats and abuse frequently have no influence over practitioners. As a result, such practitioners often suffer a great deal at the hands of authorities until they are either dead or on the verge of death. In some cases, when it becomes obvious that the all methods of coercion and pressure have been exhausted, police will return the practitioner to their home to die in order to avoid responsibility for their condition and the outcome of the brutal treatment they suffered at the hands of authorities. These are the most recent cases reported to Falun Info Net of Falun Gong practitioners who have suffered this type of abuse:

Falun Gong practitioner Wang Jijin endured unspeakable persecution in Chongqin Maojiashan Female Labour Camp, including physical abuse and brutal beatings. After surviving days of inhumane abuse at the hands of camp officials, the battle for her life continued. Police enlisted 7-8 criminal inmates to administer "medical treatment" by forcibly feeding her an unknown medicine for injuries sustained from torture. At this point, Wang’s body went into shock and the seriousness of her condition became obvious to the authorities responsible. Due to this, Wang was sent home in an attempt to avoid blame for her imminent death. At home, she was regurgitating blood, coughing, vomiting, had bloody stool and diarrhea, abdominalgia, dropsy under her breast, insomnia and weakness in the limbs. On Sept. 23 2002, Wang died at the age of 29.

Zheng Yiqin from Beihan Village in Laiyuan County was sent to a labour camp twice by Laiyuan police and the local 610 office [the 610 Office was set up specifically for persecuting Falun Gong. It has absolute power over all government offices] for a total of more than 2 years. While in the Baoding Labour Camp, he went on a hunger strike. The policemen force fed him with nocuous food that caused haematemesis, and his family was allowed to take him home only when it was obvious he was dying. He passed away a few days later on September 11th, 2002.

Zhang Jianxun, a 64 year-old retired civil service worker was forcefully taken from his home by local authorities to a brainwashing class for resolutely practicing Falun Gong. In the class he was pressured to write a guarantee statement* promising to give up practicing Falun Gong, and was sent to a detention centre for 2 months when he didn’t cooperate. After transfer to a different labour camp, he endured one night of torture that was so severe it left him paralyzed. A few months later, after unknown conditions and persecution, Zhang was sent home to die.

Practitioners who are Targets of Persecution Lose their Jobs, their Homes and their Lives

Frequently Falun Gong practitioners who escape being sentenced to prisons or labour camps suffer from a different kind of imprisonment: the invasion of their day-to-day lives. Many practitioners are monitored, harassed, and pressured to give up Falun Gong and/or attend brainwashing classes day after day. Their livelihoods are threatened either directly or indirectly by applying pressure to their employers. Some are forced out of their homes and away from their families, including young children and elderly parents. All of them are subjected to a daily living situation that is extremely unstable and sometimes life threatening. Worn down over long periods of time by this extreme pressure and persecution, once finally captured by authorities, sometimes it is a matter of a few days of torture and abuse before their bodies succumb and they pass away.

Local policemen broke into Wang Jiaxiang's workplace and confiscated his Falun Gong books. While attempting to protect his books, the police attacked Wang, and the next morning his family members found him dead.

Fired and forced to flee

Zhao Dongmei was fired from her job for practicing Falun Gong. In December 2000, she travelled to Tiananmen Square to open a banner with "Falun Dafa is Great" written on it, and was recognized and sent back to her local detention centre. At that time, she was in good health and continued to practice while being illegally held. The policemen cursed and kicked her, shackling her so that she was unable to take care of herself, leaving her no choice but to go on a hunger strike. A week later, police enlisted several male inmates to force-feed Zhao, who ignored the fact that they obstructed her trachea with food. By the next day, Zhao had become so seriously ill and was sent to the hospital. She died soon after on December 27th, 2000.

Zhang Zhongjie was fired for refusing to write a guarantee statement promising not to practice Falun Gong. He was arrested by police, but managed to escape during interrogation and attempted to disappear to escape being monitored and harassed. Right before the Chinese New Year in 2000, police unexpectedly notified his family to come identify his dead body. It was obvious that he had been dead for quite a while and had already been buried and exhumed, as his face was beyond recognition. His family members could only identify him based on a distinguishing mark on his body. The police claimed that he jumped from a train after being arrested.

Liu Fupa, an elderly woman from Hebei Province had been detained since 1999. She managed to escape from brainwashing class in 2000 and was driven from her home by monitoring and harassment. By July 2001, she was dead as a result of relentless persecution (details undisclosed) for her belief in Falun Gong.

Practitioner hunted for nearly two years dies after five days of severe torture

Sun Jihong of Heilongjiang Province was a hunted man. The unrelenting harassment and pressure put on him to give up Falun Gong forced him to flee his home on January 7, 2001. He made his way to Beijing to tell people there the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. On the day dedicated as Beijing Falun Dafa Day, February 4th, 2002, Sun went to Tiananmen Square to peacefully appeal and was arrested shortly after unfurling a banner. He protested his arrest by going on a hunger strike and was released 14 days later. On the night of May 10th, police were tipped off as to Sun’s whereabouts in Beijing. They tracked him down, ransacked his home and took him away. In detention, he again protested his unjust arrest by going on a hunger strike, and police attempted to force feed him, but failed for nine consecutive days. Although Beijing police had intended to send Sun to a labour camp, after seeing that they could not shake his firm belief in Falun Gong no matter what means they tried, they turned him over to the custody of police from his home province. Travelling back with the police, Sun escaped by jumping off the train and returned to Beijing. Months later on September 25th, while Sun was changing buses in Beijing, he was identified and kidnapped by police. By the end of September 2002, just days after his most recent arrest, Sun was dead from severe torture. When his family was finally permitted to see his body they found the corpse in a horrifying condition, and shortly afterwards police cremated his body without the family's permission. More details about Sun Jihong's death are under investigation, but police are withholding any further information.

Police Attack Peaceful Groups of Practitioners in their Homes

Due to conditions where Falun Gong practitioners are monitored by police and local authorities, they are often followed to their homes and other gathering places when they come together to practice the meditation exercises of Falun Gong. Some chases turn deadly when practitioners are captured and beaten to death on the spot, or forced into attempting escapes that turn deadly. In the majority, if not all, of these cases, the cause of death is falsely concealed with the label of "suicide." The following are recent reports of cases in which Falun Gong practitioners were followed to sites where there was a group of practitioners and captured by police.

3 dead and after police ransack a Falun Gong material site

On September 18th 2002, practitioner Mi Zhongsheng was followed by police while carrying printing equipment to a Falun Gong material site in an apartment building. Mi and several others at the site including Jiang (first name unknown) and Yang Hongyan were told they were being arrested and taken away to a labour camp. Yang, who had been released from a labour camp a few months earlier, and two others jumped out of a window and died on the spot; Mi, who had been arrested previously but managed to escape, died while being beaten and dragged away. Jiang died after a few days in a coma, and three other practitioners were beaten and arrested by the police. Equipment for printing materials, worth 20,000-30,000 Yuan, and a large amount of cash was confiscated.

Five Falun Gong practitioners ambushed by police and violently kidnapped while meditating; three missing, one held in labour camp, one confirmed dead

On September 25th 2002, police broke into a practitioner’s home and kidnapped Liao Zhaoqi and four other Falun Gong practitioners while they were doing the exercises of Falun Gong. The policemen confiscated Falun Gong books, pictures, materials, CDs, and personal effects including 3500-Yuan cash, and attempted to force Liao to disclose the origin of the materials and inform on her fellow practitioners. She refused and started a hunger strike. In an attempt to torture Liao without leaving marks, the policemen beat her chest, causing broken ribs and serious internal injuries, injected drugs to poison her, and caused her gums to fester by force-feeding her. Finally, on the night of October 3rd, Liao’s body began to suffer from shock and she was sent to the hospital where she died shortly afterwards. The police notified Liao’s son the following day and her family members requested an immediate inspection of her body. The police claimed that her body was not in the hospital and had already been sent to the crematorium. They forbade her family from taking pictures or having a memorial service for her, but after much effort, her family members were finally able to see her stiff, black and blue body. The medical examiner attempted to conceal the physical evidence of torture, but Liao’s family members saw blood coming out of her mouth and found several broken ribs on both sides of her chest, and needle eye marks near her right ear. When Liao’s family members requested the autopsy report, the police refused and instead forced her son to sign a permission waiver for a further autopsy. Dong Yuying is detained in Dayi County and the status of the other 3 practitioners is unknown.

Hospital officials kill a Falun Gong Practitioner on Hunger Strike

Hospital officials responsible for the care of their patients will often assist in the death rather than the recovery of their patients who are Falun Gong practitioners. Thus, practitioners who are sent to hospitals face torture and abuse instead of medical attention and an opportunity to heal from injuries already suffered. Common methods of torture in hospitals include force-feeding, injections of unknown drugs, being strapped to a bed, neglect, beatings and other abuse. The following is a recent report of the death of a practitioner who was killed by hospital officials in Shanyang City:

In Shanyang City Ankang Hospital, a drug detoxification centre, hospital officials are responsible for the death of at least one patient. The hospital director and chief doctor brutally force-fed Falun Gong practitioner Xong Xiangzhen to death in September 2002 while he was on a hunger strike.

Reference: Newly Reported Death Cases as of October 18th:

1. Wang Jijin, female, 29, Zhongqing
2. Zheng Yiqin, male, Beihan Village, Laiyuan County
3. Zhang Jianxun, male, 64
4. Wang Jiaxiang, 60’s, Lujing Village, Shanxi Province
5. Zhao Dongmei, a 28-year old female
6. Zhang Zhongjie, male
7. Liu Fupa, female, 67
8. Sun Jihong, male, Heilongjiang Province
9. Mi Zhongsheng, male, 30’s
10. Jiang (first name unknown)
11. Yang Hongyan, female, 42
12. Liao Zhaoqi, female, 57
13. Xong Xiangzhen

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Background

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a practice of meditation and exercises with teachings based on the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance." It is a practice that was taught in private for thousands of years before being made public in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong has roots in traditional Chinese culture, but it is distinct and separate from other practices such as the religions of Buddhism and Taoism. Since its introduction in 1992, it quickly spread by word of mouth throughout China, and is now practiced in over 50 countries.

With government estimates of as many as 100 million practicing Falun Gong, China's President Jiang Zemin outlawed the peaceful practice in July 1999, fearful of anything touching the hearts and minds of more citizens than the Communist Party. Unable to crush the spirit of millions who had experienced improved health and positive life changes from Falun Gong, Jiang's regime has intensified its propaganda campaign to turn public opinion against the practice while quietly imprisoning, torturing and even murdering those who practice it.

The Falun Dafa Information Centre has verified details of 511 deaths since the persecution of Falun Gong in China began in 1999. Government officials inside China, however, report that the actual death toll is well over 1,600, while expert sources estimate that figure to be much higher. Hundreds of thousands have been detained, with more than 100,000 being sentenced to forced labour camps, typically without trial.

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