(Minghui.org) Since 1999, the communist regime in China has regularly used torture in its campaign to force Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their belief. The examples below give a glimpse of the cruelty practitioners are subjected to at the hands of the authorities.

Mr. Zheng Xiangxing from Tangshan City, Hebei Province

Mr. Zheng, owner of an electronic store in Tangshan City, was sentenced to ten years in prison in May 2012. A mere five months later, his family was notified to come to visit him in the hospital. In the hospital ward, his family could not find him initially.

In fact, Mr. Zheng was lying unconscious in bed. His head was swollen badly and wrapped in gauze, and two tubes inserted in his head had blood flowing in them. His right eye socket was badly bruised, with the eyeball sticking out. His mouth was wide open and tongue retracted. There was blood on his ears and nose. He was frighteningly thin and frail-looking, yet his hands and legs were tied to the bed frame.

A doctor told his family that he was in a deep coma when he was brought to the hospital; his pupils were dilated, and he had lost control of urination. The doctor claimed Mr. Zheng had to undergo six hours of surgery to remove a four-inch piece of skull that was pressing on his brain. Doctors also removed parts of his brain that control language, sight, and memory.

Mr. Zheng's family wasn't given any advance notice of the surgery, nor were they given the opportunity to consent to the procedure.

Zheng Xiangxing before the torture

Zheng Xiangxing after his skull was opened

Mr. Huang Lizhong from Huludao City, Liaoning Province

During his ten years in Panjin Prison, Mr. Huang was beaten and tortured with electric batons. During a family visit in October 2009, an inmate had to hold him up. His own wife could not recognize him. He was extremely frail, his teeth were severely deformed, his body was shaking uncontrollably, and he partially lost his hearing. Five days after the visit on October 25, 2010, prison authorities notified his family that Mr. Huang had died in prison.

Mr. Huang Lizhong

Mr. Huang's remains

Mr. Wu Yuan from Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province

On December 8, 2003, one year into Mr. Wu Yuan's prison term at Shenyang 2 ^nd Prison, his family was notified that he was diagnosed with late stage esophageal cancer. On December 10, 2003, during a half-hour family visitation, his wife saw someone curled up in his bed, extremely thin. She had to confirm that the person lying in the bed was indeed her husband. Mr. Wu died hours later.

Mr. Wu Yuan

Mr. Li Changmao from Macheng City, Hubei Province

Mr. Li was beaten in 2001 by local police and handcuffed to a tree in the cold, wearing only underwear. Police interrogators forced him to pick out red-hot charcoal from a burning stove. During a family visitation, his wife could not believe her eyes when she saw him. Mr. Li's eyes were swollen shut and his body covered in fist-sized bumps from being beaten. After another arrest in 2009, Mr. Li died after 20 minutes in police custody.

Torture Method: Hanging By Handcuffs

Mr. Yu Huinan from Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province

Mr. Yu was beaten and tortured during detention at Suzhou City Prison for refusing to renounce his belief and practice of Falun Gong. When his wife visited him, he was almost unrecognizable and extremely thin, weighing only 77 pounds. Prison authorities feared he would die in prison and released him in December 2005. His family took him to the hospital. In spite of emergency medical treatment, Mr. Yu died soon afterwards.

Mr. Yang Xiaojie from Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Five years into his 11-year prison sentence, two of Mr. Yang's teeth were knocked out. His lumbar vertebrae was severely injured. The savage force-feeding left him paralyzed and weighing 88 pounds, a sharp drop from his former weight of 154 pounds. The prison released him on December 28, 2005, fearing that he would die in prison. He could not speak without gasping for air and was bedridden. He died a month after his release.

Ms. Guo Ping from Weifang City, Shandong Province

Ms. Guo was arrested in December 2001 and went on a hunger strike to protest his illegal detention. She was subjected to punitive force-feeding, which caused severe bleeding in her stomach. When her family visited her in the hospital in May of 2002, they could not believe what they saw: Ms. Guo's body was swollen, her eye sockets dark and puffy. She was coughing up large amounts of blood, and repeatedly fell unconscious. Two days after the visit, Ms. Guo died at the age of 28.

Ms. Guo Ping

Ms. Liu Zhaoxia from Huailai County, Hebei Province

Ms. Liu, a chemical engineer, was jailed multiple times for practicing Falun Gong. During her two-year forced labor term, she was tortured and, as she was on the verge of death, left in a wilderness to die by the authorities. A passerby found her, saving her life. Her workplace later fired her. Her husband, a military officer, divorced her under pressure from the authorities.

Mr. Cao Ping from Guangan City, Sichuan Province

Local authorities arrested and detained Mr. Cao in 2001. During detention, they beat him with wooden sticks and fractured his left kneecap. Three months later, before his fracture healed, guards beat him again during interrogation and broke his left hand.

In spite of his injuries, Mr. Cao was sentenced to four years in prison, where he continued to be savagely tortured. He was forced to stand perfectly still in the scorching summer sun. Guards beat him at will. He was arbitrarily deprived of food. Prison authorities released him on June 28, 2003 fearing he would die in prison.

Mr. Cao's family could not believe his appearance upon his release. His weight had dropped from 143 pounds to 66 pounds. His whole body, including internal organs, hurt. He could not sleep because of the pain. Nine days later, he passed away.

Mr. Zhang Ming from Guangan City, Sichuan Province

While incarcerated at a labor camp in 2002, Mr. Zhang was subjected to vicious abuse because he refused to give up his belief in Falun Gong. The guards stopped giving him food and forced him to carry heavy concrete slabs under the baking sun. The forced labor would last up to 18 hours every day.

In just a few months, he had lost a significant amount of weight and his hair had turned gray. When his wife and her sister visited him, they couldn't believe the old man in front of their eyes was the once strong and handsome man they once knew.

Ms. Wang Aizhi from Zhoukou City, Henan Province

During her eight-year prison term, Ms. Wang Aizhi was beaten and drugged by the prison guards. During one visitation, Ms. Wang's husband could not believe his eyes as Ms. Wang was propped up by two guards and extremely thin. She gasped, “I am innocent. I am innocent.”

Ms. Jin Lida from Huainan City, Anhui Province

Ms. Jin was arrested with her husband in March 2008. After 19 months of detention, Ms. Jin was sentenced to three years in prison, where she was beaten. During one visitation, her family saw two long scars on her neck that appeared to have scores of stitches. Her face was disfigured.

Ms. Han Liping from Chengde City, Hebei Province

Ms. Han was tortured with multiple electric batons simultaneously during her two-year forced labor term starting in May 2001. According to her own account, five guards shocked her while she was handcuffed. After reviving her when she lost consciousness, the guards continued to shock her until she fainted again and again.

When her term ended, she weighed 80 pounds, a drop from her previous weight of 165 pounds. Her family could barely recognize her, and she remained unable to work for over two years.

Ms. Chen Shaoqing from Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province

Ms. Chen was arrested and tortured by the local authorities multiple times. During her five-year prison term starting in 2009, she was tortured to paralysis and weighed less than 40 pounds.

At a family visitation in 2011, her old sister, older brother and wife could not believe it when they saw her in a wheelchair, face disfigured, and wearing winter clothes to retain her body temperature in spite of the hot summer weather.