On December 26, 1999, Ms. Zhang Shu-qi was illegally arrested by Beijing police just because she wanted to audit the show-trial of the four former major contact people of Falun Gong in Beijing. She was detained for 20 days afterwards. She lost her consciousness within an hour after she returned home from the detention center. She died on the next day. The cause of her death was unknown.

Below is a report written by the family members of Ms. Zhang Shu-qi.

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She Died for Her Belief

Ms. Zhang Shu-qi, 52 years old, had been practicing Falun Gong exercises in the Zhong-shan Park of Beijing before the crackdown launched by the Chinese government in last July. On the morning of December 26, she attempted to audit the show-trial of the four major members of the former Falun Gong research society in the Intermediate People's Court of Beijing. She got arrested in front of the Court and was sent to Chang-qiao police station. On the next day, she was transferred to the detention center of the Xi-cheng Police Department. 20 days later, on the afternoon of January 14, her family members suddenly received a notice from the Chang-qiao police station that they should go to the police station as soon as possible and then go to the detention center to pick up Ms. Zhang Shu-qi. A driver from the police station drove Ms. Zhang's family members to the detention center. Accompanying them were an officer Mr. Lu and the director of the security section of Ms. Zhang's workplace, Mr. Kang.

At around 7pm, they arrived at the detention center and picked up Ms. Zhang. On the way back, Ms. Zhang told officer Lu and director Kang that she was still introducing Falun Dafa to a police officer named Xiang a while ago in the detention center. She also talked about the mistreatments she had received in the detention center. For example, she had been forced to stand as a punishment. She had been pushed down to the ground twice. More seriously, she had been forced-fed through nose during hunger strike. And so on. Later, the family members of Ms. Zhang found scars on her wrists caused by handcuffing.

Due to the traffic jam, it was already 8pm when Ms. Zhang arrived home. Upon arriving home, Ms. Zhang got very hungry and wanted to eat the cold bun on the dinning table. Her family members did not allow her to eat the cold bun. Later, she ate some noodles her family members made for her. When she was about to take a bath, she suddenly started to omit and later lost her consciousness. It was about 9pm. She was immediately sent to the Hospital of Beijing University for emergency treatment. However, she could not recover and died at 9:50pm of January 15.

She had been practicing Falun Gong for five years, which had made her so healthy that she had not spent a penny on medical treatments in the past five years, and thus saved a lot of money for the state. She had gone through the 20 days of hard life in the detention center. Why did she lose her consciousness just within an hour after she returned home? Why did the police suddenly inform Ms. Zhang's family members to pick her up at 5pm of January 14? Why didn't the police told the health status of Ms. Zhang to her family members when they picked her up so that they could take appropriate measures to prevent her death?

Who is responsible for Ms. Zhang's death?

Ms. Zhang's family members on April 5

Category: Deaths