Mr. Wu Xinming Tortured to Death in Shaanxi Province

Mr. Wu Xinming lived in Xuanwuo Town, Hanyin County, Shaanxi Province. He started to practice Falun Gong in April 1999. In January 2001, for clarifying the truth to people. he was arrested by Xuanwuo Town Police Station. Zhang Zhengmin, the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Political and Judiciary Committee secretary, threatened to dismiss him from his job if he didn't give up Falun Gong, but Mr. Wu steadfastly refused. CCP authorities had him sentenced to two years of forced labor and jailed him in Zaozihe Forced Labor Camp.

The labor camp guards encouraged drug-addict prisoners to take turns beating and cursing Mr. Wu. They tied him up in an office, and then beat him with a wooden bench. Several of Mr. Wu's front teeth were broken off, and his lower back was injured. Seeing that Mr. Wu still refused to renounce his faith, the guards tortured him using a variety of means, including locking him up in a small cell (1), depriving him of sleep, and depriving him use of the toilet, etc.

When Mr. Wu was released in 2003, he was fired by his employer. He went to talk with his employer, the police departments, the Justice Bureau, the County CCP Committee, and the County People's Congress. He clarified the truth to them, and requested his job back. As a result, in October 2003, Zhang Zongyin (male), the 610 Office chair, Xia Jinxiu (male), the Domestic Security Team leader, along with officers Zhang Shusheng and Tan Pinghai arrested Mr. Wu, fabricated some criminal charges, detained him again in the county detention center, and sentenced him to forced labor within only a few days.

Mr. Wu was for a second time detained in Zaozihe Forced Labor Camp. This time the guards had prisoners beat him with a two-inch-thick wooden club. They beat him so hard that the club broke in half. The beatings injured Mr. Wu's internal organs, causing his condition to become critical. The camp authorities were afraid of being held responsible for his death, so they notified the Hanyin County Police Department to pick him up. They ignored the fact that Mr. Wu's wife and son were living in a rental room in the county seat, and they took him to their home village far away in the mountains. They threw him out along the side of a road only half-way to his village. Mr. Wu almost died on the road.

On June 15, 2006, he was arrested a third time when clarifying the truth to people in the county seat. Once again they detained him and sentenced him to forced labor. This time the guards in Zaozihe Forced Labor Camp tied him up with rope. Mr. Wu went on hunger strike to protest the persecution, and the guards force-fed him with a highly concentrated salt solution, chili powder water, and even laundry detergent. Mr. Wu still refused to give in, despite the fact that he was miserable. The guards tortured him by tying up his body, and then whipped him with wire, resulting in his whole body being covered with bruises.

Due to the long-term inhumane torture, Mr. Wu began coughing and vomiting up blood, and looked emaciated. The camp authorities were afraid he would die there, and ordered the local police to pick him up. He was dying, but nonetheless on June 25, 2008, the town officials stormed into his home, and tried to get the dying Mr. Wu to write a guarantee statement, but he absolutely refused. Mr. Wu Xinming died in the early morning of June 26, 2008. He is survived by his wife, son and daughter, and his parents in their seventies.

Note:

(1) Small cell - The detainee is locked up in a very small cell individually. The guards handcuff the practitioner behind the back in a fixed position, in which the practitioner can neither move nor lie down. The small cell is very damp and no sunshine comes in. Detainees have to urinate and defecate in the cell. Only half of a regular meal is served to detainees locked up in a small cell during the daytime. During the night, rats run about. The stench in the small cell is so bad that it is difficult to breathe.