(Minghui.org)

Name: Zhai HuiChinese Name: 翟晖Gender: MaleAge: 62City: ShenyangProvince: LiaoningOccupation:Date of Death: March 19, 2025Date of Most Recent Arrest: April 15, 2012Most Recent Place of Detention: Dongling Prison

Mr. Zhai Hui struggled with failing health after completing a four-year prison term for his faith in Falun Gong in 2015. The Shenyang City, Liaoning Province resident never recovered and passed away on March 19, 2025. He was 62.

Mr. Zhai before the persecution and after he was hospitalized due to prison abuse

Mr. Zhai was a senior technician at the Shenyang City Food Fermentation Research Institute and Liaoning Province Forage Research Institute. Before taking up Falun Gong in 1996, he suffered from severe duodenal ulcers, digestive dysfunction, and atrophic rhinitis, but still couldn’t quit his strong addiction to smoking and drinking.

From practicing Falun Gong and doing the exercises, he quickly quit the bad habits and regained his health. His parents and other family members witnessed his miraculous changes.

Living by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, Mr. Zhai strove to be a kind person. Once he was hit by a car while riding a bike. He flew into the air and fell on the ground. Luckily for him, he didn’t suffer severe injuries. He didn’t blame the driver and let him go.

In 1997, the research institute he worked at was shut down, and he found a job at a private company. He remained loyal to his new manager and rejected more lucrative offers.

Nine Months of Detention and Torture

In October 1999, three months after the onset of the persecution, Mr. Zhai took his toddler daughter to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. As the police arrested him, he smiled at the police officers. The policeman loosened his grip and Mr. Zhai left.

Mr. Zhai returned to Tiananmen Square at a later time and unfurled a banner that read “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance is good.” He managed to leave without being arrested. He later hung the banner at a small bridge and took the train home.

Mr. Zhai was arrested again in January 2004. While being held at a detention center, the police interrogated him with torture, including beatings and electric shocks. Every time he was taken back to the detention center after an interrogation session, his body was covered with bruises and injuries. Even the detention center guards were angry about the police brutality.

Mr. Zhai was later transferred to the Zhangshi Forced Labor Camp. After a few months, he was taken back to the detention center and another round of interrogation began. Once he fainted from the beatings and electric shocks. When he came to, the police were cleaning up the blood on the ground.

Mr. Zhai started a hunger strike to protest. The Tiexi District Domestic Security Division extorted 2,000 yuan from his family and released him on the verge of death in October 2004.

Sentenced to Four Years for Installing Satellite Dishes

Mr. Zhai was arrested again on April 15, 2012 for installing satellite dishes for locals to receive uncensored news from overseas media. Officers Zhou and Gao Weiliang of the Shenhe District Domestic Security Division, as well as Cui Ning, the chief of Binhe Road Police Station, snatched Mr. Zhai’s keys and attempted to raid his place. His wife locked the door from inside. After hours of standoff, she opened the door at around noon, just before the police were about to smash open the door. The officers barged in and ransacked the place.

Mr. Zhai’s daughter, an 8th-grader, tried to stop the police from rampaging her home and seizing their computer and other personal belongings. Officer Gao threatened to beat her. She questioned them as to why they were arresting her father and ransacking their home. The police replied that they suspected her father of leaking state secrets by installing the satellite dishes.

Mr. Zhai’s wife and daughter went to the Binhe Road Police Station the next day to demand his release. The police instead ordered his wife to sign his detention notice. An officer also covered most of the content on the notice, without allowing Mr. Zhai’s wife to read it. She refused to sign the form and the police wouldn’t tell her Mr. Zhai’s detention location. After the family spent a lot of time asking around, they finally confirmed that Mr. Zhai was detained at the Shenhe District Detention Center.

Mr. Zhai held a hunger strike to protest the persecution, and his health declined quickly. The Shenhe District Domestic Security Division refused to release him, but held him at several hospitals, including the Hunnan Branch of the General Army General Hospital, the 242 Hospital (Third Affiliated Hospital of Shenyang Medical College) and 739 Hospital. Every hospital he was taken to, he was handcuffed to the bed.

The Shenhe District Domestic Security Division later submitted Mr. Zhai’s case to the Shenhe District Procuratorate. The Shenhe District Court tried him and two other practitioners together on December 25, 2012. Only a total of three family members of the practitioners were allowed to attend the hearing. The presiding judge Jiao Yuling sentenced Mr. Zhai to four years, and Ms. Meng Qingjie and Mr. Jiang Dexin to six years each. Mr. Zhai appealed with the Shenyang City Intermediate Court, and judge Wu Yongmei ruled to uphold his original verdict.

Contracting Tuberculosis in Prison and Passing Away Ten Years Later

By the time Mr. Zhai was transferred to the New Admission Prison in Shenyang on June 5, 2013 after over a year of detention, he had become incapacitated and unable to eat normally. While the prison refused to admit him, they returned him to the detention center, without releasing him. His family demanded the prison administration bureau to release him, but to no avail.

Mr. Zhai was later admitted to the Dongling Prison in Shenyang and was sent straight to the prison hospital. After taking the medicine given by the doctor, instead of seeing his condition improve, he had loose bowels no matter what he ate.

Under directives from wardens Li Zhong, Chen Xiaohan, Qu Guang, Han Jiguo, and Tian Zhi, guards at Dongling Prison brutally tortured Falun Gong practitioners in attempts to force them to renounce Falun Gong. Mr. Zheng Shoujun was beaten to death there. Mr. Xu Dawei died 13 days after he was released. At least seven other practitioners also died due to the torture in the prison, including Mr. Zhang Youjin, Mr. Jin Junbo, Mr. Shao Minggang, Mr. Li Zhendong, Mr. Liu Xiyong, Mr. Zhang Changjiu and Mr. Wang Zhongsheng.

Mr. Zhai developed tuberculosis as a result of the torture, and he suffered lung fluid buildup of over 1,500 ml. The prison still refused to release him and held him in quarantine. Once a handsome man, he became so emaciated and weak that a police officer was scared by him when he saw him walking in the hallway with crutches.

Meanwhile, the prison continued to administer unknown drugs to him, and he felt an indescribable, bad feeling in his brain. He suspected the prison was trying to weaken his will and force him to renounce Falun Gong.

After suffering three years and seven months of torture, Mr. Zhai was released in November 2015, five months before the end of his term. He had trouble walking, even with crutches, and was carried out by his family. The 610 Office agents and residential committee staffers forced his brother to sign certain documents on his behalf.

Upon returning home, no matter what treatment Mr. Zhai received, his digestive function never recovered. He struggled with decreased appetite and had trouble eating. Meanwhile, he also had persistent chest pain and kept coughing.

Despite his condition, the police continued to harass him and follow him when he went out. His family members were also harassed. The police closed his household registration account and refused to renew his ID, unless he signed the statement to renounce Falun Gong.

The physical and mental suffering continued to torment him. Even when he went to the hospital to seek treatment, they refused to admit him, because he didn’t have an ID.

In 2020, Mr. Zhai began to experience intensified pain in his chest, which sometimes kept him awake all night long. In 2022, he began to vomit blood. In order to treat him in the hospital, his family carried him to the police station, demanding that the police issue the ID for him, which they finally did.

But the damage to Mr. Zhai’s health was already beyond treatment. He became completely incapacitated and was unable to eat anything. He relied on protein drinks or egg soup. He was unable to swallow even ground meat. His body weight kept dropping, and he was merely skin and bones when he died on March 19, 2025. He is survived by his wife, daughter, and an elderly father in his 90s.

Related Reports:

Zhai Hui, Senior Technician from Shenyang City, Barely Alive Due to Persecution

Mr. Jiang Dexin and Other Practitioners Expose Brutal Persecution to the Court