(Minghui.org) A Xinbin County, Liaoning Province resident has been detained for more than a month for his faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Wang Zhongsheng, a senior lecturer, was arrested and had his home ransacked on November 1, 2020. He was put on criminal detention and is being detained at the Nangou Detention Center.
In the past 21 years of persecution against Falun Gong, Mr. Wang was fired from his job and has been repeatedly arrested and detained for upholding his faith. His wife, Ms. Wang Guilan, who also practiced Falun Gong, succumbed to the pressure from the persecution and passed away in December 2019.
Mr. Wang was put on the government’s blacklist of Falun Gong practitioners after he wrote an open letter to the central government in April 1999, demanding a free environment to practice Falun Gong. Days before he mailed the letter, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners appealed at the central government compound in Beijing on April 25, demanding the release of several practitioners arrested in Tianjin and the freedom to practice Falun Gong. Mr. Wang also went to Beijing to join the appeal, but was stopped half way and not allowed to proceed.
On July 20, 1999, the day when the Chinese communist regime formally ordered the persecution, Mr. Wang was stopped by two officers and dragged off his bike, while on his way back home after doing the morning Falun Gong exercises in the park. The officers pushed him into a van and took him to the Xinbin County Police Department. Many police officers talked to him and asked him to stop practicing Falun Gong, but he refused to comply.
In the afternoon, Mr. Wang was sent to the Party School where he worked at. At 3 p.m., the national radio station announced the Party’s decision to ban Falun Gong in China. It also read a few articles slandering Falun Gong.
Mr. Wang was held in the Party School for the next two weeks and subjected to intensive brainwashing. He was released in early August after he was forced to renounce Falun Gong against his will.
On September 5, Mr. Wang and his wife went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. When he returned in October to visit his ailing aunt in the hospital, the police arrested him. He was initially given seven days of detention, but the police refused to release him when the term expired.
In November 1999, Mr. Wang was fired by the Party School. The local government broadcast on TV the town director reading their decision to fire him.
Mr. Wang was given two yeas at the Fushun Forced Labor Camp in late December 1999 and was released in October 2000, to finish the rest of his term at home.
He returned to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and was arrested on December 30, 2020 at Tiananmen Square. Because he refused to let the police take his photos at the Fengtai Detention Center, he was kicked and stomped on by the police. He was released on January 23, 2001.
Mr. Wang stayed in Beijing after he was released. He found several local practitioners and distributed informational materials about Falun Gong with them. In mid-February 2001, he was reported to the police and then arrested.
Because he refused to reveal his name and address, the police beat and kicked him, and locked him in a metal cage. The pain from the kicking lasted for more than two weeks.
Mr. Wang was later taken to the Chaoyang Detention Center in Beijing. One night, one officer tricked him into believing that they would release him if he told them his address. Soon, police from Xinbin County arrived and brought him back. His 300 yuan and watch were held by the Chaoyang Detention Center.
Mr. Wang was taken back to the Fushun Forced Labor Camp to finish serving his term, which was extended for another ten months. He was constantly ordered to renounce Falun Gong and harassed by other detainees. Knowing that he was a senior lecturer of the Party School, the labor camp authorities forced him to give lectures about Marxism-Leninism to detained Falun Gong practitioners.
Later on, Mr. Wang developed severe swelling on his neck and he began to cough up blood. Suspecting that he had cancer, the labor camp released him.
The authorities attempted to ask him to go public and persuade other practitioners to renounce their faith. They promised to let him go back to work if he agreed, but he refused to comply.
Mr. Wang was arrested one more time in September 2004 and asked to give up Falun Gong at the police station. After he refused, the officers sent him to the Luotaishanzhuang Brainwashing Center for further persecution.