(Minghui.org) Chinese authorities have brutally tortured Falun Gong practitioners detained in brainwashing centers, while attempting to force them to give up their beliefs. The tortures have included the use of nerve-damaging drugs. The result is that many practitioners have died in the brainwashing centers.
Continued from Summary Report: The Role of China's Brainwashing Centers in the Torture Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners and The Top Three Brainwashing Centers Involved in the Torture Deaths of Falun Gong Practitioners .
This article reports on the deaths of the following practitioners: Ms. Wu Jingxia , 29, died as a result of electric shocks to her breasts, and beatings during the time she was breastfeeding. Ms. Luo Zhixiang , 29, died as a result of torture when she was three months pregnant. Ms. Jiang Meilan , 65, died of drug torture. Ms. Li Yingxiu , age unknown, after her son died of torture Ms. Li Mei , 33, beaten to death Mr. Zhang Huihao , 48 Mr. Xie Deqing , 69, whose body was forcibly taken away from the mourning hall and cremated.
Ms. Wu Jingxia Died Due to Torture During Breastfeeding Period
Ms. Wu lived on Gejiachun Fenghuang Street in the Fangzi District of Weifang City, Shandong Province. She died on January 7, 2002, at the Kuiwen District Brainwashing Center in Weifang.
Ms. Wu was arrested on January 6, 2002, for distributing materials about Falun Gong and detained in the Kuiwen District Brainwashing Center. The following day, she was severely shocked with electric batons and beaten and was taken to a hospital. She died that day in the hospital.
When her family heard about her death and arrived at Weifang Hospital five days later, many police officers were guarding the gate of the hospital and refused to let the family see her body.
Her parents and two younger brothers argued very adamantly with the authorities, and finally were granted the right to see the body, but for only a very short period of time. When they saw her body, they understood why there were so many police officers at the hospital.
There were tissues covering injuries on her face, and blood still on her mouth. Her body was fully of bruises and electric shock burns. She was still lactating, but her breasts had been shocked in four or five places, and were covered up with paper. Upon turning her over, the family saw a lot more bruises on her back, and also noticed that one hip was broken.
The family was called to the city government offices on February 20, 2002 to settle her death. When they boarded a van, they were taken directly to the crematory that had already been sealed by police.
One police officer told them to look at Ms. Wu Jingxia for the last time before she was cremated. The family said there had still not been a formal investigation, and no one had yet been held accountable for the unnatural death, so they refused to sign the paperwork. Her uncle dragged her father out of the crematory.
The family couldn't let Ms. Wu die without seeking justice on her behalf, so they wrote a complaint and submitted it to the Weifang City Police Department. The director there said, “You have all the reasons to win the case. But we can’t let you win, or we will lose our jobs.”
Wu Jingxia and her son
Ms. Luo Zhixiang Died When Three-Months Pregnant
Ms. Huang Ying holds a photo of her mother, Ms. Luo Zhixiang.
Ms. Luo, 29, was an engineer in the Design Department of Guangdong Agribusiness Construction and Industrial Corporation. On November 22, 2012, Luo Zhixiang and her husband were arrested and detained in Zhuhai District Detention Center.
After Ms. Luo was found to be three months pregnant, the city 610 Office gave orders to “transform” her in a brainwashing center in the Huangpu Drug Rehabilitation Center in Guangzhou City. Ms. Luo went on hunger strike for seven days to protest the illegal detention. She was later transferred to the Tianhe Chinese Medicine Hospital.
The authorities said she jumped out of a window from the third floor and severely injured her head. She was transferred to Jinan University Huaqiao Hospital for medical treatment. She died on December 4, 2002, at the age of 29.
Ms. Luo's husband, Mr. Huang Guohua, was soon sent to a forced labor camp in Huadu. His parents came from Shandong Province to Guangzhou City. They went to the Xinghua Street 610 Office to request justice and compensation.
For the first couple of days, the 610 Office accommodated them in a hotel and pressured them to sign the cremation paperwork. The parents insisted that Ms. Luo’s husband would be the only person who could sign the paper. But the authorities refused to let Huang see his wife for the last time.
A few days later, the authorities realized that the old couple would not succumb to their coercion, so they stopped pretending to be kind, and forced the senior couple out of their office. The couple went to request justice at the Xinghua Street Office. The 610 Office gathered about 60 people to keep them out of the office building, and called police to arrest the couple. Luckily, the arriving police officers were sympathetic and left without arresting them.
Ms. Luo Zhixiang, Mr. Huang Guohua, and their daughter
Ms. Jiang Meilan Died after Being Injected with Unknown Drugs
Ms. Jiang, 65, died on October 3, 2012, after being severely electric shocked, beaten, and injected with nerve damaging medicine in Laodaohe Brainwashing Center in Changsha City, Hunan Province.
Three people were involved in Ms. Jiang Meilan’s death.
Ms. Jiang was retired from Xiangyun Transportation Company in Xintian County, Yongzhou City, Hunan Province. On September 7, 2012, authorities at the Xintian County 610 Office ordered Domestic Security Division chief Tang Chongsheng, Yang Haibo, Li Fang, and others, a total of five people, to arrest Ms. Jiang and take her to the Laodaohe Brainwashing Center in Changsha City.
The brainwashing center was located in Zhongling Village, Laodaohe Township, Kaifu District in Changsha City. The land was originally zoned for a senior living facility, but the Hunan Province 610 Office bought the land in 2002 and constructed a brainwashing center.
Ms. Jiang refused to renounce her belief, so she was beaten and shocked with electric batons. On October 1, 2012, Ms. Jiang’s son was called by the authorities to pick up his mother from the brainwashing center.
When he arrived, his mother was dying and didn’t recognize anyone, even her son. He quickly took her to a hospital in Xintian County.
The doctors found that her internal organs were malfunctioning, and that she was full of bruises and electric burns and bleeding vaginally. The hospital initially refused to accept her, fearing that they would be held responsible if she died there. Her son used some of his connections, and the hospital finally accepted her. Ms. Jiang Meilan died on October 2, 2012.
Ms. Li Yingxiu Died after Police Officers Fractured Her Skull
Ms. Li Yingxiu died on April 6, 2001, in Hongxia Brainwashing Center in Wuchang City, Hubei Province.
a) Left to right: Liu Yingxiu, mother; Peng Weisheng, father; Peng Liang, older son; Peng Min, younger son; Peng Yan, daughter. b) Li Yingxiu’s front door at #90 Zijin Village, Pangxiejia, Wuchang City, Hubei Province. c) Li Yingxiu’s younger son Peng Min, who was killed in custody and had his organs stolen by the authorities.
All five members of Ms. Li Yingxiu’s family practiced Falun Gong. On April 6, 2001, after she heard that her younger son had been killed by the authorities and had his organs stolen and body cremated, Ms. Li, who was locked in the Hongxia Brainwashing Center, was very sad.
She had not eaten for four days and had a fever. Four police officers took her to the hospital. She was returned to the brainwashing center the same day. Four officers beat her. Ms. Li told them to stop, and warned them that if they continued, she would take down their badge numbers and report them to higher authorities.
The police struck her so hard they broke her skull. She was transported to the hospital and died that day, 22 days after the death of her younger son, Peng Min. Both mother and son died in the same hospital. When the family saw her body for the last time, she had a shaved, broken skull with dried blood, and dried blood in her mouth.
Ms. Li’s older son contacted a human rights lawyer in America via the Internet in July 2001, and filed a lawsuit in an American court against Zhao Zhifei, head of the 610 Office of Hubei Province, and vice director of the Public Security Department of Hubei Province. The case was tried on December 21, 2001 in absentia in the Federal Court of New York City. The court determined that Zhao was responsible for the killing, torture, illegal detention, and crimes against humanity involving Falun Gong practitioners in Hubei Province.
The court also ordered Zhao Zhifei to compensate the victims. Zhao was the first Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official tried and indicted outside China for his involvement in persecuting Falun Gong.
After Zhao was sued and served the subpoena, he ended his trip to the states early, and fled back to China. The regime retaliated against the family in return. Ms. Li's husband Peng Weisheng, older son Peng Liang, and daughter Peng Yan were all arrested and punished.
Ms. Li Mei Beaten to Death in Shandong Province
Ms. Li Mei, 33, died on May 28, 2001, after being severely beaten in a brainwashing center in Laiyang City Academy for CCP Members in Shandong Province.
After Ms. Li Mei was beaten to death, the local authorities searched her house and confiscated all of her photos in an attempt to cover up. This image, cut from a wedding photo, is the only photo left of the family with her in it.
Ms. Li, from Xizhu Village, Longwangzhuang Township, Laiyang City, Shandong Province, was severely beaten on April 9, 2001 in a brainwashing center at the Laiyang City Academy for CCP Members. Her spine was broken and she lost feeling in her legs. She was taken to the hospital and died seven weeks later.
The township government official who had her taken to the brainwashing center refused to cover the medical expenses. The authorities told the family that they could get 30,000 yuan (about $4,840) in compensation only if they agreed to have her cremated and say that she died due to suicide.
Her husband wanted justice for his wife, so he contacted several lawyers. But when they heard that Ms. Li was a Falun Gong practitioner, they were afraid to annoy the authorities, and declined to help. The hospital told the family they would have to pay 60,000 yuan to retrieve her body. Her husband, an average farmer, couldn’t afford it, so Ms. Li’s body remains in the hospital.
Mr. Wang Shujun Died after a Month of Torture
Wang Shujun, 36, died on April 20, 2004, after being tortured in a brainwashing center in the Handan Forced Labor Camp in Hebei Province.
Mr. Wang Shujun when he was a soldier in Xinjiang in May 1992
On the morning of April 1, 2004, Cao Zhixia, head of Handan City 610 Office, and Lian Rihong from Cheng'an County Police Station ordered local authorities to arrest Mr. Wang Shujun and take him to the Handan City Brainwashing Center.
Mr. Wang was a veteran and a farmer from Wangpengliu Village, Chengan County, Handan City. The brainwashing center was inside the Handan Forced Labor Camp.
He was repeatedly beaten because he refused to renounce Falun Gong or sign paperwork promising to stop practicing and appealing for Falun Gong. He went on hunger strike for over three weeks to protest the inhuman torture.
Mr. Wang was extremely weak after about a month in the brainwashing center. Cao Zhixia was afraid of being held accountable for his death and planned to release him, but she wanted to extort money from the family one more time.
Mr. Wang told Cao Zhixia, “My family is now penniless as a result of extortion, and we still owe 5,000 yuan. If you want more money, you will have to sell my house. Or, you can tear down the house and sell the clay underneath it to a brick factory. You can dig a hole as deep as you like.”
The authorities held Mr. Wang in the brainwashing center for nearly two more weeks, and finally sent him home when he was at death's door. About a month later, at 4:00 a.m. on June 20, 2004, Mr. Wang Shujun died, survived by his wife and daughter. The family was so poor that they couldn’t even afford a funeral.
Ms. Li Xiumei Choked to Death
Ms. Li Xiumei was choked to death in the house of an official of the local 610 Office on November 24, 2005.
Ms. Li Xiumei
On November 3, 2005, Wang Xingyuan from Shenwang Village, Qingzhou City, Shandong Province, informed the authorities that his mother, Ms. Li Wenshu; his older brother, Mr. Wang Xingjia; and and his sister-in-law, Ms. Li Xiumei, practiced Falun Gong at home.
He led agents from the Qingzhou City 610 Office to his home, where the three were arrested. They were taken to a local brainwashing center. Ms. Li Xiumei refused to renounce her belief so the authorities set up a special family brainwashing center inside the house of Li Xingyi, an official adviser of the 610 Office, to detain her.
Seven people took turns around the clock trying to break her down. They deprived her of sleep, choked her, hit her with a rolling pin, etc. Ms. Li Xiumei was choked to death on the night of November 24, 2005.
Her family were called to pick up her body. They found bruises on her legs, and pinch marks on her neck. The family reported to the police and requested an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The coroner confirmed the above injuries and also found that her internal organs were damaged.
Ms. Li’s family complained to the police, and the seven people involved in her death were arrested and detained in Qingzhou City Detention Center. The 610 Office then intervened and forced the police to release all seven. At the same time, Ms. Li Xiumei’s body was cremated.
The 610 Office thought her family would appeal to higher authorities for justice, so they arrested her husband, Wang Xingjia, and sent him to two years of forced labor.
When Mr. Wang was released from the Second Forced Labor Camp of Shandong Province on July 31, 2007, two years later, the local 610 Office had him sent him to a brainwashing center in Feifang City, Shandong Province, where the authorities repeatedly threatened him “not to seek revenge.”
He was finally released from the brainwashing center after six months and returned home. Awaiting him was sad news that his son had died in a mysterious blast at work, after which no investigation was conducted.
As of today, the seven people involved in Li Xiumei’s death are still at large.
Mr. Zhang Guihao Died in Lingnan Gold Mine
Mr. Zhang Guihao, 48, died on November 30, 2011, in a brainwashing center in Lingnan Gold Mine.
Mr. Zhang Guihao
Mr. Zhang Guihao from Nanchenjia Village, Fuzhan Township, Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province, was arrested on November 11, 2011, by plainclothes officers from Zhaoyuan City Domestic Security Division and was detained in a brainwashing center in Lingnan Gold Mine.
The authorities had previously detained Falun Gong practitioners in a brainwashing center inside a former government building in Goushang Village, Linglong Township. Because the building was close to the village, people occasionally heard victims crying out while being tortured, so the authorities moved the brainwashing facility to a more remote place in 2004, an abandoned administration building of the old Lingnan Gold Mine located on the northern border of Linglong Township.
Although it was officially named “Zhaoyuan City Legal Education Center,” it was actually a black jail with around the clock surveillance. The locals called it “Lingnan Gold Mine Brainwashing Center.”
Lingnan Gold Mine Brainwashing Center in Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province
In April 2011, the administrators at the brainwashing center changed. The new political advisor was Li Haifeng, who used to work in the Political and Legal Affairs Committee. A former hit-man, Qu Tao, was promoted to section chief.
Under orders from the Zhaoyuan CCP Committee, the Zhaoyuan City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and the 610 Office, the brainwashing center subjected practitioners to many forms of torture, including “the hand spin electric generator shocking machine,” electric baton shocks, “copper wire whip,” “cuffing and hanging,” “rope torture (bundling the whole body tightly with ropes ),” “steam torture (wrapping the body in many layers of cotton quits to make one very hot and sweaty for a long time),” and sleep deprivation.
Mr. Zhang died on November 30, 2011. The next day, the local authorities began to spread a lie that Mr. Zhang had committed suicide by hanging himself. The authorities cremated the body eight days later without the consent of his family.
Mr. Xie Deqing Poisoned to Death
Mr. Xie Deqing, 69, a retired engineer from the Chengdu City Survey and Design Institute Science Search Institute, died as a result of being poisoned within four days after being released from Xinjin Brainwashing Center in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, on May 27, 2009.
Mr. Xie Deqing (left) and his wife Yu Qinfang
Mr. Xie Deqing died four days after being released from Xinjin Brainwashing Center. He had severe pain and internal organ damage, and appeared to have been poisoned.
After Mr. Xie died, the authorities set up a surveillance post outside his house at No. 188 Qingjiangdong Road, inside the housing compound of Chengdu City Survey and Design Institute.
Mr. Xie was taken from home to Xinjin Brainwashing Center on April 29, 2009. He was tortured and injected with unknown drugs that caused him severe pain, and made him incontinent and unable to eat. He quickly lost weight and had a heart attack.
He died only four days after being released from the brainwashing center. He told his family that he had been taken to a hospital for an exam and injected with unknown drugs. His hands then started to turn black, as did his entire body.
Ms. Xie’s family set up a mourning hall at home. At 3:00 a.m. on May 29, 2009, armed police led by 610 Office officials and men from the local police substation and street office broke into the apartment and took his body away, and had it cremated despite objections from the family. During the break-in, Mr. Xie Deqing’s two sons, Xie Weidong and Xie Weiming, were arrested, and Xie Weidong was injured.
Xie Weidong, Xie Deqing’s older son, was injured during the break-in.
At Least 281 Falun Dafa Practitioners Died in Brainwashing Centers Nationwide
According to a report published on the Minghui website, a total of 367 Falun Gong practitioners have died in brainwashing centers or after being persecuted in brainwashing centers. There is enough information on 281 of the cases to identify the 225 brainwashing facilities responsible.
Considering the information blockade and cover-ups by the Chinese communist regime, we believe there are more un-reported deaths, and that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners are still being detained and tortured in brainwashing facilities.
Calling for Justice
On May 13, 2013, Chinese human rights lawyers Jiang Tianyong, Tang Jitian, and others went to the Ziyang City “Legal Education Center” (also known as the Er’ehu Brainwashing Center) in Sichuan Province and asked to speak with the leaders to express their concerns over human rights violations.
The authorities responded by beating the lawyers, and then detaining them for 24 hours. After being released, those lawyers gathered again and raised a banner to protest the mistreatment and published the photos online.
a) Lawyers arrive at the gate of Ziyang City Legal Education Center, the Er’ehu Brainwashing Center. b) Lawyers protest being beaten and detained in Ziyang City. The banner reads, “Ziyang: Beating lawyers won’t conceal the crimes being committed inside the brainwashing center”
One lawyer said that the so-called “Legal Education Center” looks like a resort, but it is most definitely a brainwashing center. Because the center is located inside Er’ehu Mountain Villa in Yingjie Township in the Yanjiang District of Ziyang City, Sichuan Province, Falun Gong practitioners usually refer to it as the Er’ehu Brainwashing Center. Among the total 449 brainwashing centers mentioned in this report, Ziyang Er’ehu Brainwashing Center ranked 13th, with two confirmed deaths.
The use of brainwashing centers is one of the major means used by the communist regime to persecute Falun Gong since 1999. Based on a report by the Minghui website entitled, “ Trends and Statistics of Persecution Cases in 2013 ” published in January 2014, there were 157 brainwashing centers operated by all levels of 610 Offices in 27 provinces as of the end of 2013. When the communist regime announced the dissolution of the forced labor camp system in 2013, the authorities began creating more brainwashing centers to replace the closing labor camps.
It is a sad fact that not one single person responsible for torturing or killing a Falun Gong practitioner has been brought to justice in China since the beginning of the persecution in 1999. After 15 years, a just world can no longer allow the existence of the brainwashing centers.
