Deaths Behind the Article “In Those Unbearable Days”

(Minghui.org) A long article titled “In Those Unbearable Days” was recently published on Minghui exposing the crimes in Lanzhou Prison, Gansu Province. Its author Mr. Li Wenming was detained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for 21.5 years. During that time he was inhumanely tortured and humiliated. It was his faith in Falun Gong, encouragement from kind-hearted people, and strong determination that helped him persevere until his term ended in August 2021. 

During those years, Mr. Li was fired by his employer, his house was demolished, and the furniture went missing. His wife Ms. Xiao Yanhong was also persecuted for practicing Falun Gong and later, under intense pressure, was forced to divorce him. A once happy family was thus torn apart. Although Mr. Li was entitled to unemployment benefits, the Lanzhou Social Security Bureau declined his request for no reason. He could not get a subsistence allowance either. 

The Deaths of Numerous Practitioners

In his article, Mr. Li mentioned the deaths of several practitioners caused by the CCP’s suppression. One, Ms. Yao Baorong, died in custody in May 2000. Afterward, officials prohibited any public acts of mourning and had her cremated right away. 

After a video of the staged self-immolation incident on Tiananmen Square was played in Ping’antai Forced Labor Camp in late January 2001, Mr. Li saw 60-year-old practitioner Mr. Qian Shiguang beaten so badly that his face was unrecognizable. Mr. Qian later died while being held in Gongjiawan Brainwashing Center. 

Of Mr. Song Yanzhao, he wrote, “Song’s face was a mess, and he had five broken ribs as a result of torture, but the guards still forced him to do hard labor. Before that guard Bao Ping had instructed two inmates to hang Song by his hands from a wire and beat him severely. That was how his ribs were broken. We asked the guard to send him to the hospital, but he was even more brutally abused by guards Kang Shicheng, Wang Wenchang, and Bao Ping.” 

If that was not enough, Kang told Mr. Song, “I heard that your ribs are broken. Come here, and we will take care of you.” They threw Mr. Song on the ground and grabbed his chest, making him scream in pain. Some of those guards were simply moved to another unit in the prison and never punished. 

Mr. Wang Youjiang was also brutally persecuted by Zhang Haijun, the former brigade captain, and Wang Guochen, the former instructor, in the Fifth Division. As a result, Mr. Wang had a stroke, became partially paralyzed (hemiplegia), and died.

Deaths of Regular Inmates

According to Mr. Li, more than 20 inmates in Lanzhou Prison died of illness due to lack of treatment in 2020 alone. In less than two years, from 2019 to 2020, in the 10^th Division, two inmates died in prison, and one died less than a week after being sent to Xinqiao Prison (Kangtai Hospital). Wang Xingyun had bile duct stones but was not treated. Until the day he died, he worked with the brigade, with two people holding him just to walk. He died after returning to the cell after work one evening. 

Xi Xingwu had stomach cancer but was not treated until the cancer had spread. He was sent to Kangtai Hospital, where he died in less than a week. Ran Hongju suffered from heart disease and was not treated for many days. Near death, he was issued a medical order and was to go to the Kangtai Hospital to prepare for “treatment,” but he died before he ever left the prison.

These were not Falun Gong practitioners, but Lanzhou Prison still covered them up. After a prisoner died, the body was fitted with an IV and an oxygen cannula to make it look like he died after someone tried to resuscitate him. But no officers, guards, or inmates involved in the torture would incur consequences. 

When the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, former CCP leader Jiang Zemin let it be known that: “You can kill them [Falun Gong practitioners] with no consequences; these deaths will be counted as suicides” and “kill [them] with no mercy.” Jiang is dead now, but his “order” is still in effect in China. It appears that the CCP’s brutal tactics are not limited to Falun Gong practitioners but extend to the general public. However, the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners is the worst. 

Unfortunately, after perfecting these “successful” forms of torture on Falun Gong practitioners, the CCP has expanded its use of surveillance, threats, detention, and torture to other minority groups including Uyghurs and those who petition for their rights. 

Underreported Cases

In September 2023, a newspaper in Shanghai reported on a wrongful death that occurred 10 years ago. Ma Long, a Gansu resident, died in Lanzhou Prison on March 26, 2013. That afternoon, four police guards said Ma had fallen under a bench and died. His body was cremated and the prison paid the family 60,000 yuan under the table. 

After that, former inmates and guards contacted his family from time to time, claiming Ma had been beaten to death. Although the family filed a lawsuit, prison officials said further investigations showed it was a “natural death.” It was not until the Supreme Procuratorate reviewed this case for re-investigation in 2023 that the four guards admitted they had beaten Ma with rubber batons and electric batons. Ma was not sent for “resuscitation” until after his death. A photocopy of the secret agreement between the prison and Ma’s family to “close” the case by paying the family 60,000 yuan under the table was also made public. 

This is a rare example of a wrongful death being corrected. Over the past 24 years since the persecution of Falun Gong began, more than 5,000 deaths have been confirmed, but it’s believed that it only represents the tip of the iceberg of the persecution. Due to the CCP’s political and economic influence, one doesn’t read a lot about this modern-day genocide in the media.

But remaining silent in the face of the totalitarian CCP will eventually hurt everyone. German pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) once wrote a poem regretting not doing more when the Nazis invaded in a poem titled “First They Came:”

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.