(Minghui.org) After Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, he mobilized the entire society, including law enforcement, procuratorates, courts, detention facilities, schools, and businesses, to carry out his eradication policy to “Destroy them [Falun Gong practitioners] physically, ruin their reputation, and bankrupt them.”

Jiang once gave the order to law enforcement and guards at various detention facilities (including labor camps, detention centers, prisons, and brainwashing centers) that they could report Falun Gong practitioners’ torture deaths as suicide. Instead of being held responsible, the police officers, guards, and inmates who beat the practitioners would receive promotions or term reductions.

As a result, the police and prison guards became ever more blatant in torturing the practitioners. Some openly claimed that they were the regime’s hit men and some said they were following the regime in beating the practitioners.

In a recent example, Mr. Peng Shuming, a Chinese medicine doctor in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, suffered swelling eyes, a bleeding nose and pain in his ribs that lasted three weeks after being beaten by detention center guards. When his lawyer challenged the guards for beating him, they replied, “Hasn’t he recovered already?”

While Mr. Peng survived the torture, many other practitioners didn’t. As a way to cover up the crime, the authorities sometimes claimed that the practitioners died of a sudden heart attack or a stroke. Many of the families were barred from seeing the practitioners’ bodies or surveillance videos of their final days. Some practitioners’ bodies were also forcibly cremated without their families’ consent.

As of December 14, 2022, Minghui.org has confirmed and documented the deaths of 4,884 Falun Gong practitioners. However, the actual death toll is believed to be much higher than Minghui has been able to verify given the strict information censorship in China.

Below are select torture death cases that took place throughout the past two decades.

Mr. Zhang Jianhua

While Mr. Zhang Jianhua was serving time at the Jilin Prison, he was tied up to the stretching bed with his body suspended in the air. His hands and feet bore excruciating pain. Meanwhile, the guards force-fed him. As he refused to cooperate, the guards ordered the inmates to cover him with a blanket and beat him. His chest and abdomen swelled up as a result. Despite his condition, the guards still tied him to the stretching bed and shocked him all over. They kept him tied up overnight. When the inmates checked on him the next day on January 22, 2004, he had since long passed away.

Torture reenactment: extreme stretching

Mr. Wang Qibo

Mr. Wang Qibo, also of Jilin Province, was arrested on July 13, 2002, and later sentenced to seven years in Jilin Prison. The inmates monitored him around the clock and forced him to sit on a small stool without moving for at least 14 hours a day. Meanwhile, they kicked his back and beat his arms with bamboo strips. On March 28, 2007, the prison claimed that Mr. Wang suffered a sudden stroke and ordered his family to come to the prison to see him.

According to his family, Mr. Wang’s pupils were dilated. There was blood in his mouth and nose, as well as on his clothes. He passed away hours later, at the age of 47. The prison didn’t allow his family to take photos of his body and forcibly cremated it.

Ms. Zhang Dezhen and Ms. Liu Shufen

Ms. Zhang Dezhen was a biology teacher at Mengyin County Sixth Middle School in Shandong Province. She was arrested on September 19, 2002, and held at Mengyin Detention Center. The guards kicked her and beat her with rubber batons. They also force-fed her when she went on a hunger strike to protest.

Ms. Zhang died from an injection of toxic drugs on January 29, 2003. According to her brother Zhang Dewen, her body was curled up and covered in bruises and injuries. She was extremely emaciated. When he refused to sign her cremation agreement, the police beat him into submission.

Another practitioner, Ms. Liu Shufen, was also beaten to death at the detention center on the same day. The 610 Office threatened the family that there was no way for them to seek justice for her anywhere.

Dr. Wang Shukun

Dr. Wang Shukun, a 66-year-old physician in Haining City, Heilongjiang Province, was ordered to renounce Falun Gong in late June 2020. As she refused to comply, the police beat her for hours. She suffered a sharp pain in her leg and begged the officers to let her go. They agreed but threatened that they would come for her again a few days later.

Dr. Wang crawled up the stairs to get back to her apartment unit. Her husband noted that she had bruises on her body. Her kneecaps were broken, and she was soaked in sweat. She suffered a stroke on the afternoon of July 1. She was very dizzy and felt like throwing up. She passed away at around 4:25 a.m. on July 2.

Mr. Lu Guanru

Mr. Lu Guanru, of Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, was arrested on November 9, 2018. While he was held at the Daqing City Detention Center, the police interrogated him and forced him to stand for long hours in shackles. When Mr. Lu went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution, the guards force-fed him, which caused him to vomit blood and suffer heart failure. He was on the verge of death several times and had to undergo emergency treatment at the hospital.

Mr. Lu was sentenced to seven years in prison with a 40,000 yuan fine on July 1, 2019. He was transferred to Tailai Prison in November 2019. The prison ordered strict management of him and held him in solitary confinement for a month. He died on April 4, 2021. He was 69.

Mr. Gong Piqi

Mr. Gong Piqi was the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Reserve Antiaircraft Artillery Division in Shandong Province. He was sentenced to seven and a half years on July 20, 2018, in Shandong Prison in Jinan.

Shandong Prison is notorious for torturing Falun Gong practitioners. Many practitioners were killed, disabled, and injured there. Instigated by the guards to torture practitioners, some inmates said, “We were told not to kill you, but to make your life a living hell – so you would rather die than live.”

As a result of the tremendous mental pressure from the persecution, Mr. Gong developed extremely high blood pressure (260/100 mmHg). Sometimes his blood pressure was so high that it could no longer be measured. He was also denied use of the restroom and forced to sit on a small stool for long hours. The guards starved him and then didn’t let him buy extra food. Meanwhile, he was also forced to watch long hours of propaganda videos at maximum volume.

Mr. Gong died in prison on April 12, 2021. He was 66. His family saw wounds on his head, which was also wet and swollen. There was blood dripping out of his ears.